1 00:00:01,870 --> 00:00:05,580 Walk south. Dancin all day, it's leaving the city behind you. 2 00:00:05,580 --> 00:00:12,510 Past Christchurch and towards the River Thames before you reach Folley Bridge, you'll see on your right a grand Ashley building. 3 00:00:12,510 --> 00:00:14,970 High up on the facade is a plaque. 4 00:00:14,970 --> 00:00:23,520 It features the upper body and head of a man, his arm resting casually along the top of a tablet which reads William Morris Viscount Nuffield, 5 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:30,120 1877 to 1963, motor manufacturer and generous benefactor. 6 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:34,860 I think that that short poetic phrase sums up very neatly a man who did more 7 00:00:34,860 --> 00:00:39,900 than any other individual to transform Oxford in the 20th century physically, 8 00:00:39,900 --> 00:00:44,160 economically and socially. My name's Liz Wooley. 9 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:50,190 I was a student here in the 1980s, but I stayed on afterwards and crossed the great divide to become a townie. 10 00:00:50,190 --> 00:00:53,850 Now, I'm a freelance local historian working on commercial research, 11 00:00:53,850 --> 00:01:00,720 community history projects and as a part time tutor at the university's Department for Continuing Education. 12 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:10,560 My main interest is in the city of Oxford in the 19th and early to mid 20th centuries, and in particular in social history, industry and commerce. 13 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:18,180 And that's why the subject of this plaque. William Morris or Lord Nuffield, as he became in 1934, is so appealing to me. 14 00:01:18,180 --> 00:01:22,020 And like many other people, I also have reason to thank him. 15 00:01:22,020 --> 00:01:27,630 I was born in the maternity wing of the Radcliffe Infirmary, which he built in 1932, 16 00:01:27,630 --> 00:01:33,940 so that, as he put it, any woman in Oxford can have her baby in hospital. 17 00:01:33,940 --> 00:01:36,640 This building here is now the county court. 18 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:43,420 But the plaque is here because originally it was one of several motor garages which Morris had around the city. 19 00:01:43,420 --> 00:01:46,270 By the time the building was erected in 1932, 20 00:01:46,270 --> 00:01:52,090 William Morris was well on his way to becoming one of the most successful businessman that this country had ever seen. 21 00:01:52,090 --> 00:02:00,580 And someone who put Oxford firmly on the international map, he'd started at the age of 15 with a capital of just four pounds, 22 00:02:00,580 --> 00:02:05,050 setting up a bicycle repair business in a shed at the back of his parents house. 23 00:02:05,050 --> 00:02:09,470 Soon he was building bicycle's and selling them. His business expanded. 24 00:02:09,470 --> 00:02:14,560 And by 1981, when he was 24, he took over premises in the city centre. 25 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:24,610 By 1912, he was assembling cars. And he soon moved his factory to Cowley, a village two and a half miles to the southeast of the city within 15 years. 26 00:02:24,610 --> 00:02:30,700 He was making 55000 cars a year. Two fifths of all the cars being produced in Britain. 27 00:02:30,700 --> 00:02:38,840 And on the eve of the Second World War, he was employing 11000 people, 30 percent of expats working population. 28 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:46,850 A lot of those workers came from outside the city. Thousands of men migrated here from depressed mining areas in South Wales, 29 00:02:46,850 --> 00:02:51,950 Yorkshire and Derbyshire, where Morris actively advertised for their labour. 30 00:02:51,950 --> 00:03:00,170 Their wives and children followed a large new housing. Estates were built, particularly between East Oxford and Cowley, to accommodate them. 31 00:03:00,170 --> 00:03:08,030 These men and their families brought with them their religious nonconformity. They left wing politics and trade unionism and their culture. 32 00:03:08,030 --> 00:03:11,990 That's why we still have an Oxford Welsh male voice choir. 33 00:03:11,990 --> 00:03:14,650 Even to this day. 34 00:03:14,650 --> 00:03:22,720 So within just a few decades, William Morris changed the demographics, the physical layout and the social and religious life of the city. 35 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:26,920 He also made Oxford World famous not just as the home of a university, 36 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:32,680 but as a manufacturing centre from which cars were exported all over the globe to meet demand. 37 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:37,120 He set up foreign assembly plants in South Africa, India and Australia. 38 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:44,890 The Hindustan ambassador, based on the Morris Oxford, was still being manufactured in India as late as 2014. 39 00:03:44,890 --> 00:03:47,830 And such was the fame of the Morris Carr works here in Oxford. 40 00:03:47,830 --> 00:03:58,870 The tourists flocked to visit the factory, and some academics noted ruefully that the university had become little more than Cowley's Latin Quarter. 41 00:03:58,870 --> 00:04:05,110 At the same time, Morris amassed a fortune at one time, he was said to be earning 2000 pounds a day. 42 00:04:05,110 --> 00:04:14,110 But he gave most of it away. And he lived frugally. When asked about the benefits of riches, he said, well, you can only wear one suit at a time. 43 00:04:14,110 --> 00:04:22,180 He gave enormous donations to higher education, to scientific research and to medicine, both here in Oxford and elsewhere. 44 00:04:22,180 --> 00:04:26,200 He gave regular and large benefactions to various hospitals. 45 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:32,110 He provided numerous medical research scholarships at colleges and endow the Nuffield Dominions scholarships, 46 00:04:32,110 --> 00:04:39,940 bringing medical graduates from universities in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to further their education at Oxford. 47 00:04:39,940 --> 00:04:46,650 Though when asked why he didn't include Canada, he replied, Well, they haven't bought any of my calls. 48 00:04:46,650 --> 00:04:48,690 This former Maurice Scarrow Johnson Allday, 49 00:04:48,690 --> 00:04:56,940 it is just one of many sites across the city which remind us of the lasting impact which Lord Nuffield had both on the town and the gown, 50 00:04:56,940 --> 00:05:07,740 though perhaps surprisingly, the plaque here is the only personalised memorial to him in the city which he loved so well and to which he gave so much. 51 00:05:07,740 --> 00:05:09,840 I hope that you've enjoyed this podcast. 52 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:20,731 Please visit the Oxford and Empire Network Web site to listen to others and to find out more about Oxford's relationship with Empire.