Rootes Archive Centre - Memories.

The Rootes Memories project aims to collect the memories of people who were involved with the manufacture or distribution of vehicles of the Rootes Group or their suppliers. We would like to record the memories of a generation of people involved with the engineering and manufacture of British cars and to preserve and make available these memories for future generations.

Despite many enthusiastic comments about this project and a great deal of work from Kimberley Benoy, to whom we owe our sincere thanks, we regrettably had to announce in Nov'2012 that we did not get enough volunteers to take forward a proposal to the Heritage Lottery. From now on we will look for other ways to record Rootes history and add to the information in the Archive.

The aims of this project were (and still are) as follows.

1. To collect and preserve memories in the form of oral history from people who were involved with the manufacture and distribution of vehicles of the Rootes Group. This will now include mainly written accounts;
2. To make the recordings and information gained through this project accessible to the communities involved, members of ARCC member clubs and the using booklets, exhibitions and by providing selected online access. We will initially use our Web site;
3. To use the information gathered through the project to help people learn about the history of their communities and the impact of the motor industry;
4. To improve and add to the recorded history of the British motor industry for future generations.

So, if you have memories to share, or know someone who could be persuaded, please contact us:

We will attempt to summarise the information received below. Click on the names to see their story.

• Geoff Newland - 22/6/2012
• Terry Sharman - Oct'2010
• Sam Cottingham - Jan'-2006
• Ken Elvery - Jan'2006
• Tony Deane - memories of Dunstable