LEGENDS OF CASTLE BROMWICH
After the closure and demolition of its long-term home factory at Browns Lane, Jaguar’s modern-day car production has been centred upon the Castle Bromwich site in Birmingham, which has produced all the brand’s aluminium-bodied models.
It’s previously produced the X150 generation of the XK coupe, the 2002-onwards X350 generation of XJ which pioneered Jaguar’s use of aluminium for bodyshells and the X200 S-Type but despite having been established in the 1930s, the 1999 S-Type was the first complete car the factory produced.
The reason for this is the fact that although it became a part of BMC in 1953, the Castle Bromwich site was historically a body pressings plant rather than a vehicle assembly plant. Built as a wartime Spitfire fighter factory, it passed to Fisher & Ludlow after the war, which was later combined with Pressed Steel and produced body pressings for most of the BL marques.
It was in the ’80s that the plant passed into Jaguar control, largely at the instigation of John Egan who was becoming increasingly frustrated by the quality of the bodyshells arriving at Browns Lane from Castle Bromwich. It wasn't all the fault of the Castle Brom'
