About this Event
‘Detroit on Thames – The story of how William Morris built a car-making empire and changed Oxford forever’
Born in 1877 at the height of the British Empire, William Morris grew up on the rural fringes of east Oxford. He left school at the age of 14 with no qualifications but it soon became apparent the young Morris was a natural mechanic and instinctive businessman.
He became a teenage entrepreneur, progressing from repairing bicycles in his parents front room, to building his own motor garage in Longwall and developing a protype for the Morris Oxford and Morris Cowley cars. These vehicles would earn him a personal fortune and result in the construction of a giant assembly plant at Cowley.
The new factory employed cutting edge technologies and the meteoric growth of the business in the 1920s would soon exhaust the local labour pool and attract tens of thousands of workers from across the UK. The social and economic changes which followed would transform Oxford into a blue-collar boom town with sprawling housing estates and a fierce reputation for union militancy.
This twentieth century industrialisation challenged the centuries old power balance between gown and town. For a few decades it appeared that the future of Oxford lay in chimney stacks not dreaming spires.
Join local historian Maurice East to discover the amazing story of how cars came to be built at Cowley.
Complimentary tea and coffee will be available to enjoy during the talk. We recommend arriving before the start of the talk if you would like to grab a refreshment.
Tickets cost £5 and can be purchased online via Eventbrite (booking fee applies) or at the Museum Shop.
Sales from tickets help support our work to deliver fun and accessible family activities, community engagement projects, schools workshops, exhibitions and special events for Oxford’s people in our Museum spaces.
is a local historian who was born and raised in Oxford. He interprets the social history of the city through the lens of growing up as a ‘townie’ and shines a spotlight on stories far off the usual tourist trail. His main area of research is the history of car making at Cowley and how the arrival of industry, cars and blue collar workers changed Oxford forever in the early twentieth century.
Access:
There is step-free, level entry access to the Town Hall via the entrance closest to Carfax Tower (to the left of the main steps as you face the Town Hall). Inside the Museum, Museum Makers is accessible via a platform lift to the Galleries and then a lift to the basement.
Accessible toilets are available in the Museum (close to Museum Makers) and in the Town Hall on the ground floor, before entering the Museum. Please if you’d like to talk to a member of staff about your access requirements. Further access information can be found on our page dedicated to .
Photo consent:
Please be aware that photographs will be taken at this event for use in marketing. If you (or a member of your group) would prefer not to be photographed, please let a member of staff know during the event.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Museum of Oxford, St Aldate's, Oxford, United Kingdom
GBP 6.13
