Introduction.

The official celebrations of the Centennial took place over three days, May 3rd, 4th and 5th being sponsored respectively by the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd and Rolls-Royce plc.

 

1. Visit to Bentley Motors Ltd, Crewe, May 3rd 2004, in conjunction with the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club.

 

After about an hour and a half’s drive through superb Derbyshire countryside, with its rolling green hills and lots of dry stone walls, my son, Ian, and I arrived at Pym’s Lane in bright sunshine to see a crowd of PMC’s gathered outside the factory, and accompanied by AX201 and SU13 parked outside the front door.

 

 

Also about 350 members were milling around the cars prior to touring the factory in two groups but all meeting for lunch in between.

 

During lunch we met several participants from the NZ tour, namely the organist John Miley from London, John and Anne Hanford from Maidenhead and Carol & Gary Fraser from California. We also met Peter and Bonnie Lind, who were the instigators of the 2004 Centennial World tour and who are at present organising the events for the final part of the tour in Monterey, California in August. We received much favourable reaction to the NZ Leg of the Tour from these people.

 

The factory was deserted as today was a public holiday, but we were still able to tour the interior trim and upholstery shop, the engine shop, and the final assembly lines for the Continental GT and the Arnage.

 

We also were shown round the Mulliner (special products) area where the one-off commissions are built, including stretched cars, and those with special interior features including bullet-proof glass and other security measures.

 

 

Also in the Mulliner area was a full-sized clay model of the Bentley presented to the Queen for her Golden Jubilee, along with the first Bentley, a 3 litre, ever built, a Bentley rotary aircraft engine, the Barnato Blue Train Bentley, Tim Birkin’s supercharged 4 ½ litre Le Mans car and the 2003 Le Mans winner.

 

 

 

As we were about to leave the factory, the Silver Ghost, AX201, was being driven in through the gates to be put away for the night, so in the course of a conversation with its custodian, Richard Charlesworth, Director of Bentley Mulliner, we asked if we could have a ride in the back seat, and having laid out a special piece of green carpet to protect the irreplaceable tread-plate on the running-boards, we climbed in and went for a ride of about half a kilometre round the factory.

That’s another 50-year old ambition achieved. Next time perhaps I’ll be in the front seat!

  After to the visit to Crewe, drives had been arranged to other areas of RR significance, specifically, Brae Cottage, Knutsford, (R's home) and to the former Cooke Street site in Manchester where the first factory had been. It was replaced in the 1960's by a block of council flats, and is now an area of parkland, where some RR employees initiated the planting of 100 trees to mark the Centenary.

 

2. Centennial Luncheon, at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, 4th May 2004, sponsored by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd.

The following day, Tuesday 4th May, was the Centennial day and was marked by the Centennial Luncheon hosted by Rolls-Royce plc at the Midland Hotel, Manchester. This was held in the Alexandra Suite, originally just known as the Grill Room, that same room where CSR, CJ and FHR first met and dined all those years ago. Little did they guess….

 

Outside the Midland in typical Manchester sunshine (the vertical, wet sort) was a display of some of the surviving Manchester-built cars, including the Silver Ghost c/n 60551, AX201, two of the four remaining two-cylinder cars, c/n 20162 AX148, and c/n 20165 SU13. Also on display were the one remaining three-cylinder car c/n 26330 SD661, a four cylinder 20 hp car c/n 26350, AX147 and also two other c/n 60577, SU76 and c/n 60712, SX48. The special Centenary version of the Phantom was there also but overshadowing all these machines was a Trent jet engine as found in many of today's and tomorrow's large transport aircraft. Alongside the Trent was its minute (relatively) ancestor, the first R-R aircraft engine, the Eagle, which powered such famous aircraft as the Bristol F2B Fighter.

 

  

 

The Centenary Phantom was one of a limited run of just 35 cars, which are distinguished by red RR insignia, special door sill tread plates and door pillar chassis plates. The interior wood veneer is in mahogany with silver inlaid RR logos on the door cappings (do passengers really need to be reminded of the marque they are travelling in?) and as a finishing touch, the silver lady actually is silver, and solid at that. I do hope its security system is in keeping with the rest of the car as it would be a prime attraction for the less moral amongst us.

The display inside the Midland Hotel included a memorial plaque recording the Meeting, together with an original two cylinder engine, reputedly the one that Royce showed to Rolls to start the whole process.

 

 

 

Also on show was the Schneider Trophy, which inspired the production of the RR PV12 engine, from which the whole family of Merlins and Griffons was descended.

 

 

Before the luncheon, the Chairman of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust and retired Chairman of Rolls-Royce plc, Sir Ralph Robins proposed a toast to the meeting, after which we all moved outside to view a flypast by the Lancaster, PA474, of the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

 

After the luncheon, speakers included Dr Helmut Panke, Chairman of the BMW Group, and Mr Tony Gott, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd.

Invited guests included descendants of the Rolls and Royce families, along with descendants of Claude Johnson, Ernest Claremont, Henry Edmunds, Lord Hives and George Yarrow, who taught the young Royce his basic engineering skills. Representatives of all the RR Clubs and similar organisations from around the world were also invited and present.

The traditionally damp atmosphere of Manchester took its toll on the 4-cylinder 20 hp AX147, which had elected to remain stationary. However all it took was a hearty, albeit prolonged push from assembled enthusiasts including myself, and it resumed its characteristic progress.

 

On our way home to Derby, we diverted to Manchester airport to inspect at close quarters, Concorde G-BOAC, powered of course by four Rolls-Royce Olympus engines but now regrettably permanently grounded.

 

And then our route took us along the steep, winding and bleak Macclesfield-Buxton road, past the Cat and Fiddle inn where early RR test drivers would often halt for refreshment, so this was an obvious photo opportunity.

3. Visit to Rolls-Royce plc, Nightingale Road, Derby, in conjunction with the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust.

The final day of the celebrations, Wednesday 5th May, consisted initially of a visit to the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Centre where a wide range of aircraft engines were on display together with the nose and cockpit section of a 1950's-vintage RAF Canberra bomber that had been powered by two RR Avons. After lunch, coaches took us to Nightingale Road, where the Company had moved to in 1906, and which since 1940 or so, has been given over solely to aero-engine production. Much of the original factory was designed by Royce, though obviously many changes were made in subsequent years.

 

Now the factory building has serious shortcomings, mainly as a result of low roof height in some areas, which severely limits the height of machines that can be installed. Accordingly production planning is rather convoluted. Demolition is therefore being seriously considered but heritage considerations are preventing this from happening immediately. Foremost amongst these considerations is the main entrance, known as the Marble Hall. This contains bronze busts of Rolls and Royce, together with the memorial stained-glass window, unveiled in 1949, portraying a young Royal Air Force fighter pilot and bearing the following inscription,

 

"This window commemorates the Pilots of the Royal Air Force who in the Battle of Britain turned the work of our hands into the salvation of our Country."

 

This factory was bombed by a Dornier 217 on the night of 27th July 1942 though only one bomb actually found its target. To this day, shrapnel damage to some of the stanchions supporting the cranes is clearly visible, and is eagerly shown to visitors.

 

During the visit we saw the main assembly area for civil aircraft engines, mainly the Trent, a massive and awesome beast, which generates up to 90,000 lbs of static thrust. Also we visited the engine test-beds and then the compressor and turbine blade shops where computer-controlled machines grind the final dimensions of the blades to very fine dimensional tolerances with virtually no human intervention apart for loading and unloading the machines, and final inspection by means of fibre optics and microscopes.

These three days in May 2004 were a very memorable occasion to all who were fortunate enough to attend and will be enjoyed in retrospect for many years. Ian and I were privileged to attend as guests of Rolls-Royce, through the Heritage Trust, and would like to record our gratitude to its Chairman Emeritus, Mike Evans, for this invitation and for his hospitality.

 

Roy Tilley