days of the Great Western Railway may be over, but transport remains a central part of Swindon's identity.

As the railways' dominance became overshadowed by the growth of the car last century, Swindon quickly became an important focus for the burgeoning motor industry.

With the arrival of Swindon Pressings, and later Honda, generations of Swindonians have been given the chance to help keep the town moving forward. ANDY TATE reports

Swindon Pressings

Swindon Pressings Ltd has been at its landmark Stratton St Margaret site since 1955.

It is the largest single location of pressings and full systems engineering in Europe.

Originally set up as Pressed Steel Fisher, the body components supplier was taken over by Rover in the 1960s.

When Rover was sold in 2000, owners BMW held on to Swindon Pressings, and it remains a wholly owned subsidiary of the BMW group.

The 425,000 sq m site is now a purpose built tooling and assembly facility that provides a complete body systems service from design to component manufacture.

Production facilities include a variety of automatic and semi-automatic sheet metal presses, forming equipment and robot welding cells.

Swindon Pressings has a full order book and currently employs a workforce of about 2,300, with an annual turnover of more than £200 million.

Much of the output is supplied to former Rover Group associates, which are now external customers of Swindon Pressings Limited.

The plant also provides components for the new MINI, produced by BMW Group at its Oxford plant.

Bob Bolam, managing director of Swindon Pressings, said the company would be retaining its links with the town into the future.

"We have enjoyed a long and successful association with Swindon, Wiltshire's principal industrial and business centre," he said.

"Good transport links have supported the development of the business which supplies a range of automotive customers in the Midlands and the north of England.

"As it develops to become the main supplier of pressings to the MINI at BMW Group's Oxford plant, Swindon Pressings looks forward to maintaining its strong links with the town."

Honda

Honda's South Marston plant, best known for producing the Civic range, employs about 4,300 staff and uses some of the world's most advanced production processes.

In 1985 the factory was conceived at the former airfield as a pre-delivery centre for checking quality of Honda and Rover-built cars.

Since then about £1.15 billion has been invested in the South Marston site, beginning with the construction of an engine plant for building various types of petrol engines in 1989.

Full-scale car production began at a new plant in 1992, with a production capacity of up to 550 cars a day or 150,000 cars per year operating on a two-shift basis. The total investment for the plant was £300 million. Honda's second car production line took a total of 21 months to complete from design through to construction. In total, 3,000 tonnes of steel were used in the main building frame and 24,000 tonnes of concrete poured into the foundations.

The plant initially started small-scale production in mid-July 2001 with the Civic 5-Door, and started production of the Civic 3-Door the following year.

It has the capacity to produce about 350 cars a day, or 100,000 a year, bringing Honda UK's total annual capacity to 250,000 cars.

The company said it had decided to invest in Swindon because the town was the manufacturing centre of the Great Western Railway and set the standard for excellence in engineering, as well as having excellent transport links.

Honda said it had received a warm welcome from the local community. In March 2003 the plant celebrated the production of its one-millionth car.

Andy Tate