Pride of Longbridge: Rover Community Action Trust holds cavalcade
Apr 20 2009 by Tony Collins, Birmingham Mail
THE ‘Pride of Longbridge’ made a poignant return to the former home of MG Rover to mark the fourth anniversary of the collapse of the car giant.
More than 450 cars, from a classic Austin 7 through to the most recent MG, gathered in Birmingham on Saturday to take part in the annual motor cavalcade.
Organised by the Rover Community Action Trust, the vehicles gathered at Hopwood Services on the M42 before travelling to nearby Cofton Park in Longbridge, opposite the former car plant.
The cavalcade, which saw many MG Rover models stop outside the plant’s main Q Gate, included two Minis brought over from Australia by their owners.
Former Rover worker Andrew Cartwright, whose wife Gemma led a delegation to the House of Commons as chairwoman of the Rover Community Action Trust two years ago, said it was a “joyous day” despite it being the fourth anniversary of 6,000 workers losing their jobs.
Andrew, who now works as a youth worker, said: “It was a chance for me, and lots of other former Rover employees, to meet up with people they used to work with.
“And it was also a chance to show people the cars that had been made inside the Rover factory for the last hundred years.”
He added: “It’s a time to be proud of what British manufacturing we have still got left, which isn’t a lot, and that really saddens me. Those times have gone.
