In 1968 the British Leyland Motor Corporation was created by a merger which brought together most of the surviving British Motor manufacturers. Many individual companies owned a number of old vehicles which had been kept for historic or publicity purposes so ‘Leyland Historic Vehicles’ was set up in 1975 to look after them all.
The department soon began to accumulate historic documents and photographs and by 1979 had become a self-funding operation, renamed BL Heritage Ltd.
By 1983 the archive and vehicle collections had grown to the point where it was decided to establish an independent charitable trust to safeguard them. This was how the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust came into being.
Early Days
As ‘Leyland Historic Vehicles’ matured into a Trust, it outgrew its accommodation at the Longbridge factory. In 1978 the archive collections and vehicle workshop moved to Studley Castle which British Leyland had acquired in the 1970s as a conference and training facility. Studley had formerly been an agricultural college and thus our documents and reserve vehicles were housed in rather charmingly named buildings such as the ‘coach house’ and the ‘milking parlour’, but it was not possible to bring the public onto this site.
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Studley Castle outbuildings – home to BL Heritage Ltd. In the 1980s
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Building the Heritage Motor Centre in 1992
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Heritage Motor Centre when it opened May 1993
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The Trust Today
Today the Trust continues to grow and shape its work and collections.
The Trust has raised funds for many projects including the purchase of the Nick Baldwin Collections, and two major museum re-development projects. The addition of a mezzanine floor to provide extra exhibition space in 2007, and the new Collections Centre in 2015. A 4500m2 building which houses the reserve vehicle collections of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and the Jaguar Heritage Trust.
Following the development of the Collections Centre an extensive museum redevelopment took place in 2015/16 and the museum re-branded and re-opened in Feb 2016 known as the British Motor Museum.
The Trust maintains its philosophy of preserving Britain’s motoring heritage and sharing its story with the nation.
The Trust’s Archive now encompasses thousands of business and sales documents, more than a million images and miles of moving film, all of which chart the course of the British motor industry from the 1880s up to present day. The Archive provides access to many of its records for authors, academics, press and the media and the demand for its Heritage Certificates continues to grow.
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