The History
Honda Motor Company, Ltd is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a production of 400 million by the end of 2019, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year. Honda became the second-largest Japanese automobile manufacturer in 2001. By 2015 Honda was the eighth largest automobile manufacturer in the world.
In 1985, Honda acquired the South Marston site on the north eastern outskirts of Swindon. The site had been used during the Second World War for aircraft production by Phillips & Powis and Short Brothers, and later by Vickers-Armstrongs-Supermarine; its selection in 1938 took into account the presence of the skilled workforce at the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway. The 370-acre (150 ha) site straddles the boundary between the parishes of Stratton St Margaret and South Marston.
Honda Uk Manufacturing was established in 1985, and began engine production in 1989.
In 1992, production of the Accord (which had the same design as the Rover 600 Series, but used different engines) began in Swindon, while a second engine line was added. In 1994, production of the Civic began in Swindon. Also this year, the Rover-Honda venture ended due to BMW's takeover of Rover. Despite this, the 1995 Rover 400 Series was based on the new Civic.
In August 2000, it was reported that UK-manufactured Honda cars would be exported to Japan for the first time. In the same year, the plant began production of the CR-V SUV, which had been sold since 1997 in the UK. In September 2001, HUM opened a second car assembly plant in Swindon, adding two hundred jobs and increasing capacity to 250,000 vehicles a year. From this year onward, production of the Civic Type R moved to Swindon, and would remain there for the rest of the plant's life. In December of 2001, plant workers voted to form a union, and be represented by the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union.
In 2002, HUM began export to North America while production of the Accord ended, with the new model being imported from Japan. In October 2002, Ken Keir, managing director of HUM, stated that Honda would maintain vehicle production in the United Kingdom, irrespective of whether or not it joined the Eurozone.
In 2003, the plant produced its one millionth vehicle.
In September 2006, it was announced that Honda would be recruiting an additional 700 workers for HUM, and raising production at the site by 32% to 250,000 vehicles per year.
In February 2008, it was announced that Honda would be making an £80 million investment in new production facilities at Swindon, for the manufacture of plastic car parts and metal castings for engines.
That same year, the plant produced its two millionth vehicle.
On 30 January 2009, due to the recession, which had caused a fall in sales, it was announced that direct workers at the Swindon site would be laid off for four months until 1 June, with full pay for the first two months of the period and about half-pay for the remainder. Employees in the indirect staff or maintenance categories would instead lose approximately £1,500 and remain at work.
In October 2009, HUM began production of the Jazz, fondly known in the motor trade and the Honda Jizz, which until then had been imported from Japan. Production of the Jazz continued until 2014, when the new generation brought the model back to being imported from Japan.
In September 2012, Honda announced a £267 million investment programme at the Swindon site, to support the introduction of new models of the Civic and CR-V, and a new 1.6 litre diesel engine. The investment would take total investment at the site to around £1.5 billion, and would increase the workforce to 3,500.
Honda planned to invest £200 million ($300 million) to turn Swindon into the global production hub of the next generation of the Civic five-door hatchback, providing about half of its production for export markets. It would bring cumulative investment in the plant to over £2.2 billion.[19] As part of the plan, the plant would stop production of the CR-V. In 2018, production of the CR-V ended after making 1,209,174 vehicles.
The trade deal between Japan and the European Union, agreed in July 2017 and signed off in July 2018, put an end to import tariffs on car imports between the two economic zones. These had formed a significant part of the rationale for building the plant in 1985; what were termed by government as "Brexit uncertainties" after the 2016 referendum contributed further to doubt about the future of the plant. In February 2019, Honda announced that the plant would close in 2021, with the loss of about 3,500 jobs in the area, and production shifting to Japan, North America and China.
The plant was already projected to close for six days in April as part of its Brexit preparations. In December 2020, production was halted temporarily as there was a delay in parts deliveries. Good ole Brexit!
HUM officially ceased operations on 30 July 2021, with the final car produced, a grey Civic hatchback, rolling off the line the previous day. The closure also marks the end of Honda manufacturing in Europe.
Of Swindon's 3,400 workers, only 200 will remain to decommission the plant.
The Explore
There had been stories in the Motoring press regarding the closure of Honda Swindon at the start of 2021 but when the official closure date was announced it really got my attention. But we had to wait for the Covid lockdowns to end and all us oldies to be jabbed up and for Travel to become the norm again. So I guess I was a bit lame in not actually going there to look. I just thought ahh it’ll be alright. It kinda was.
Various whatsapp and Telegram groups had the odd murmur about Swindon but it seemed that nobody really showed interest in it. Oh well.
I did a little bit of google maps studying and knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in.
Like Duh its Honda UK!
I chatted with my normal bunch of co-conspirators and they feigned an interest but on the weekend I had chosen only @xplorer.x was available. So after various train journeys I picked him up and we headed down to Swindon. Taking in the lovely traffic jams of the UK’s M25 and the joy that is the M4 in the direction of Swindon. As a side note, I fucking hate the M4, it feels like no matter how long you are on it for you are always an hour from your destination.
Anyway I digress
We arrived in Swindon and headed in the general direction of Honda, Only to be a little more unaware than we should have been at the sheer size of the place. Not sure what we expected from 370 acres really..
We did a casual drive about and decided on a route in.
After a fuckload of nettle stings and cuts, a river and a dodgy spikey fence we found ourselves inside the grounds of HUM but still at least a 1/4 of a mile from the nearest building.
The next 45 minutes consisted of a horrendous mixture of stingy nettles, thorns, bamboo and matching through the trees. My legs are a mess as I stupidly decided to wear shorts. Dickhead!
Once close to the building we spent some time checking out what seemed to be a minimal amount of cameras and luckily all looking away from us. Even the ball cameras were on a seemingly robotic and slow pattern of movement. We sat for a while and watched the pattern of movement before finally going for it and bounding over a combination of different types of fences.
