Former MG Workers Enjoy Christmas Reunion

OVER 70 former MG factory workers attended the MG Car Club’s second annual Christmas reunion party at Kimber House, Abingdon.

After the success of the reunion party last December, organisers John Sheppard and Vito Orlando gladly hosted this year’s party for the former MG employees to catch up with friends and recall stories of their time together building the classic cars we know and love.

33 years after the MG factory closed its gates, visitors gathered around John Watson’s 1964 MGB Roadster and Richard Harrington’s 2013 Frontline Developments MG LE50 Plus, a modern day version of the classic MGB GT.

Amongst the former workers attending the reunion party were Ray Mooren and Tony Mullins. Ray and Tony both began as apprentices working on early T-Types before the Second World War. When the war ended they returned home and returned back to the factory they loved.

Also attending the gathering was Chris Merritt, whose father worked at the Pavlova Leather factory, which rented the factory grounds to MG. Chris and his family lived in Kimber House during the 1950s and his father owned the prototype MG Y Type pictured below:

Whilst having a tour of Kimber House Chris noticed that ‘KWL 200’ features in the photograph of workers leaving the factory in 1948 which is proudly displayed at Kimber House.

Members of the Abingdon Works Centre came along to help serve food and drink to the visitors and shared their experiences of driving and owning the cars built here in Abingdon.

As they left, each visitor was presented with a group photo from the day, a copy of the MG Car Club’s monthly magazine, a postcard of the Royal Mail’s MGB stamp released this August and a can of Ale from Old Speckled Hen.