The Humber car company has featured a few times in my history articles. Most people know the Humber brand from the Rootes Group and was seen as the luxury brand within the group. Thomas Humber who founded the company started like many entrepreneurs in the 19th century by building bicycles. He was very successful opening 3 factories across the UK. He had invented a "safety … [Read more...]
Hillman
William Hillman was first known as a designer of the velocipede, a forerunner to the bicycle and he had been involved with a group of entrepreneurs who were importing them from France. He was born in 1849 and worked for the Coventry Machinist Company, a company that made small machines. In the mid 19th century, Coventry in England was the centre for sewing machine … [Read more...]
Rootes Group
The Rootes Group was a British conglomeration of brands that built up over 50 years. Like GM in the US, Rootes acquired brands that suited different market segments although for many years, the same car was just rebranded with a different level of trim. William Rootes founded the original company in 1913 in south England as a car dealer and became one of the biggest … [Read more...]