Welcome to The Leyland Society
What’s New?
(Updated 10 Dec 25)
December Picture of the Month
Watch BBC’s ‘Clash of the Titans’ – a Leyland turning point
A Christmas Gift for the discerning Leyland enthusiast?
First photos of Thomas Pemberton’s 76/77 Buffalo restoration
The Leyland Society
Preserving the heritage of Britain’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer for future generations to appreciate
Registered Charity No. 1137856
Registered in England
Company No. 4653772
The Leyland Society
Leyland Motors was a pioneering engineering business dating back to 1884 based in the town of Leyland
The Rise and Fall of a Corporate Giant
The Leyland Motor Corporation manufactured lorries and buses employing over 70,000 people at sites from Glasgow (Albion) in the north to Basingstoke (Thornycroft) in the south. The six factories of Leyland Motors Limited in the Lancashire towns (see map) of Leyland and Chorley alone employed 13,000 people.
So what went wrong?
Decades of growth
The first steam wagon was built and run in Leyland in 1884. It was a pioneering venture. Other companies throughout Britain were also taking an interest. The race for perfection had begun. From those small beginnings developed the British automobile industry, hungry for ideas, for capital, for first-class business acumen, for the shrewd adventurer prepared to take a risk – even big risks.
Many could not stand the pace, and numerous pioneer companies crumbled or were merged into larger and more efficient units. Through this turmoil the Leyland pattern of success emerged. It extended its plant, its sales and service. Within twenty-five years of its birth it was exporting its products to a score of countries and had developed its own plants in Canada, Australasia and South Africa. After more than 70 years of progressive manufacture, it had over 25 major manufacturing companies in the U.K. and well over 100 subsidiary and associated companies overseas.
A merger too far
Considerable political pressure from Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Industry Secretary Anthony Wedgewood Benn – the former Viscount Stansgate and later Tony Benn – aimed at protecting jobs in Labour’s West Midlands heartland forced a merger too far. On 17 January 1968 the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) was formed when the smaller, profitable Leyland Motor Corporation completed a one-for-one share exchange with British Motor Holdings (BMH). This valued BMH at £201 million for a business that had lost £3.4 million in 1966/7 compared to Leyland’s balance sheet value just short of £113 million.
(BMH came together in 1966 and comprised Austin, Morris, MG, Riley, Wolseley, Vanden Plas, Jaguar, Daimler, Coventry Climax, Guy Motors and the Pressed Steel Company)
On formation BLMC ranked as the second largest automotive company in Europe and the fifth largest in the world with annual sales of over £800 million.
The story of the merger is the subject of Graham Turner’s book “The Leyland Papers” – first published in 1971 – which is well worth a read. Two quotes from the final chapter resonate.
…the British-owned sector of the motor industry remained a preserve of autocrats who failed to provide it with management adequate for an industry that was growing rapidly
and
The death of Henry Spurrier, at a time when Leyland’s management resources were already stretched, was a crippling blow; combined with the resignation of Stanley Markland, it left the company with a void which it took several years to fill.
Nationalisation and privatisation
The lack of management resources and experience identified by Graham Turner, poor industrial relations (particularly within BMH) and the need for huge investment to develop competitive product ranges across BLMC brought the business to its knees. The truck and bus operation along with the rest of the corporation was nationalised in 1974. A process of privatisation started in the 1980s.
Between nationalisation and privatisation, British Leyland struggled with industrial unrest, quality issues, and declining market share. Government intervention aimed to stabilise operations, but fragmentation and underinvestment persisted. The company was restructured into separate divisions, including Austin Rover and Leyland Trucks, paving the way for eventual sell-offs and the dismantling of Britain’s once-dominant vehicle manufacturer.
A short lived management buyout preceded Volvo acquiring the bus manufacturing operation in 1988 but they were unable to maintain UK production as bus deregulation decimated the market for new vehicles.
A fitting legacy
DAF followed by PACCAR acquired the truck manufacturing operation. Leyland Trucks is today one of Britain’s leading manufacturing companies. It is PACCAR’s established centre for light and medium duty truck design, development and manufacture. Now one of the jewels in the crown of PACCAR production locations around the world, it is regularly praised for its efficiency, safety and cleanliness in both internal and external benchmarking exercises.
A fitting legacy for all that went before.
Phil Jones - The Leyland Society Hon. President
The Leyland Society is delighted that Phil Jones – Managing Director of Leyland Trucks – recently agreed to take the position of Hon. President of the Society. We look forward to working with him in the future and developing our links with Leyland Trucks.
Phil joined Leyland Trucks in 1993 and has extensive experience across truck operations including Assembly, Materials, Quality, Manufacturing Engineering and Facilities. He also spent 7 years establishing PACCAR Parts Distribution Centre at Leyland. Phil earned his undergraduate engineering degree from the University of Nottingham and his MBA from Manchester Business School. He is registered with the Engineering Council in the UK as a Chartered Engineer.
