Development

1960s advert for the Hillman Imp

In this useful source, union leader John Carty describes how the opening of the Linwood factory encouraged workers and their families to move to Linwood. In a few years the population of Linwood grew quickly from 2,500 to 15,000 inhabitants, and then continued to grow. Linwood was not one of Scotland's new towns but new houses had to be built as quickly as possible to house the car workers and their families. At the same time, many workers either moved to other towns and villages in the area, or travelled to work at Linwood from other parts of Central Scotland.

BBC Radio 1981 'The Linwood story'

John Carty Trades Union leader

The site which was to be the Rootes factory when it was surveyed in 1961

"There were 1,000 people in it and Rootes were going to employ 5,000 people and Pressed Steel were going to employ 4,000 so you can imagine the feeling of the work people at Linwood that there was going to be that kind of opportunity just half a mile down the road and people were delighted about it. They built the roads and the motorway and the infra structure to accommodate the factory and expanded the village of Linwood to create a town, where eventually 17,000 people lived. A number of these people came from all over Scotland indeed we had some people who came from England from the Swindon Pressed Steel factory up to Linwood because they thought they were going to be a better future there. We also had people who came from, if you like, the centre of Glasgow into the new housing schemes of Linwood and Johnstone and the surrounding area to try to build a new community."

The site which was to be the Rootes factory when it was surveyed in 1961