Morgan - Morgans and the Telegraph...

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Mon 23 Feb 2009 14:07
Morgans and the Telegraph... - SlidingPillar
www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/carreviews/convertibe...l

The article starts:
The Reverend Morgan began building cars 100 years ago - and the first fruits of his labours had only three wheels.

Wrong, HFS Morgan was never a reverend, it was his dad! And even then you can argue as he was the Reverend Prebendary Morgan.

Blackjack Zero sounds fun enough but I'll keep my Morgan three wheeler.

(I'd have made this comment to the DT but could not see where and I guess HJ has a better way in).

Edited by Honestjohn on 23/02/2009 at 15:05

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Mon 23 Feb 2009 14:09
Morgans and the Telegraph... - Pugugly
Whole new meaning to taking your car for a Service though (and remember the Rev Counter)

Edited by Honestjohn on 23/02/2009 at 15:06

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Mon 23 Feb 2009 14:27
Morgans and the Telegraph... - L'escargot
www.morgan-motor.co.uk/about_morgan/1910.html

Edited by Honestjohn on 23/02/2009 at 15:06

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Mon 23 Feb 2009 16:32
Morgans and the Telegraph... - jbif
The link provided by L'escargot says:

"The Morgan Motor Company was formed as a private Limited Company in 1912 with the Reverend H.G. Morgan as Chairman and his son as Managing Director."

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Mon 23 Feb 2009 17:15
Morgans and the Telegraph... - SlidingPillar
True, but Rev HG Morgan had nothing to do with actually making the cars. I think he bankrolled and certainly supported his son, HFS who was the managing director and did the real work.

Rev HG Morgan as far as I know, never built a car in his life!
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Mon 23 Feb 2009 17:21
Morgans and the Telegraph... - OldSock
I fondly remember Morgan Cars being featured on the Troubleshooter series, featuring Sir John Harvey-Jones.

At one point, JH-J suggested increasing production from eight to nine cars per week. When interviewed, one old boy at the factory shook his head gravely, saying, "Mr. Morgan never said nothing about no ninth car...."

Priceless :-)
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Mon 23 Feb 2009 17:28
Morgans and the Telegraph... - oldnotbold
JH-J was pretty amazed at what he saw in the whole of Morgan, as I recall, and the total lack of streamlining of the production process in particular - at the time Morgan had a huge unfulfilled order-book which was six or seven years long, and he was pretty bemused that they had no desire to turn it into cash. In turn, Morgan were fairly contemptuous of his advice, and were the only company JH-J visited to turn down all his advice out of hand.

It'd be interesting to see if they have since come into the 20th C.

Edited by oldnotbold on 23/02/2009 at 17:30

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Mon 23 Feb 2009 17:59
Morgans and the Telegraph... - rtj70
I remember the programme too. They used to push the unfinished cars about the site. There was no production line and I don't think they used any power tools either.

Very simple changes would have made a big difference. But they carried on the same.
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Mon 23 Feb 2009 17:33
Morgans and the Telegraph... - L'escargot
....... Reverend Prebendary .......


Even after reading this www.spiritus-temporis.com/prebendary/ I'm no wiser about the difference between Reverend and Reverend Prebendary.
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Mon 23 Feb 2009 19:41
Morgans and the Telegraph... - bathtub tom
>>It'd be interesting to see if they have since come into the 20th C.

My daughters once commented it was nice to see I'd entered the twentieth century (I'd got myself a mobile 'phone - I even switch it on sometimes).
I replied it was the twenty-first.
Yes! They said.
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Mon 23 Feb 2009 19:54
Morgans and the Telegraph... - woodster
Wasn't the company view (in light of JH-J's advice) that keeping it small kept up demand for the product? If they'd increased production to match demand, the value of second hand cars would fall and they'd be having to make cutbacks in the event of reduced demand - just like all the big players today. Meeting demand wouldn't have done the marque or the company any favours.
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Mon 23 Feb 2009 20:00
Morgans and the Telegraph... - woodster
Just out of interest, for any Morgan aficionados, I was fortunate enough to spend quite some time as a boy in Colin Wilson's workshop. He would make parts from the bare metal where they were no longer available and practised real panel beating to fashion wings etc for restorations. My first ride was in a plus 4 which seemed to fly and nearly shook me out. I think it was this that got me properly hooked on cars and the engineering. (Glazes over with nostalgia...)
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Mon 23 Feb 2009 20:09
Morgans and the Telegraph... - SlidingPillar
Morgan did adopt a lot of Sir Johns ideas, just slowly and without increasing production to any real extent.

As far as I know, in 100 years, they've never made anyone redundant, and recently when an apprentice had a bad accident in his own time, the company made a new role for him, and some of the funding to adapt home things for him was raised by his fellow workers and Morgan's suppliers.

I rather doubt they pay the highest wages, but as a company to work for, I'd say they are pretty good.

I don't by the way have any direct contact with them in case anyone thinks there is a conflict of interests here!
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Tue 24 Feb 2009 07:44
Morgans and the Telegraph... - Natty Bumppo
A response to Woodster's post.
I live in Royston Vasey along with many odd folk. One guy Mike (no surname in order to protect the innocent) runs a one-man engineering business. He spent 18 years restoring a Lagonda and had to make his own replacements for rusted body panels. None of your going to the local spares shop and buying McPherson strut weld-on re-inforcing panels (remember them?). There is also a rumour that he made a cylinder head from scratch for some exotica out of a block of aluminium alloy!
The art of panel beating and metal working is not dead yet. But soon may be.
PS He has a scrap book of photographs of the Lagonda restoration (which he now uses occasionally on special occasions and friends weddings etc. - the car not the scrap book before someone picks me up on that). If you are ever in Roston Vasey call and see him and look through his scrapbook. Amazing.
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Tue 24 Feb 2009 10:56
Morgans and the Telegraph... - GroovyMucker
I'm no wiser about the difference between Reverend and Reverend
Prebendary.

>>

I think titles often have to do with how the office-holder is paid - or the source of his income.


Generally, re Morgan - good for them not trying to maximise profit, I say.
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