Longbridge 20 years on - end of the road for Britain's biggest car plant MG Rover

The crowds cheered as John Towers rolled up in his green Rover 75 at the main entrance to Birmingham's Longbridge car plant.

The cameras clicked as a flute of champagne was thrust into his hand. Even the union man was rolling out the red carpet. 

They stopped just short of singing 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow', but even so, it is rare to see such a warm welcome for a new boss.

Towers, a former Rover executive who quit the company following a row four years earlier, was seen as the saviour of the company, the man who had delivered Britain's last remaining volume car manufacturer from the clutches of ruthless venture capitalists.

It was a false dawn. And 20 years ago today, Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt broke the sombre news that the MG Rover Group had been placed into administration, sounding the death-knell for 100 years of car-manufacturing at Longbridge.

Once one of the largest car plants in the world, employing 25,000 workers, Longbridge had brought motoring to the masses with its Austin 7, and revolutionised the industry a second time with the launch of the Mini in 1959. But on April 8, 2005 - its centenary year - Longbridge finally ran out of road.

A week later, with rescue attempts abandoned, the first redundancy notices were issued to MG Rover's 6,300 strong workforce, with another 3,000 workers at companies relying on business from MG Rover also losing their jobs over the months that followed. Many firms were left struggling to survive, others simply went out of business.

And just over five years after his triumphal return to Longbridge, knight in shining armour John Towers had seen his reputation somewhat tarnished.

Towers emerged as the saviour when previous owner BMW decided to divest itself of Longbridge - and the Rover and MG car bands - in March 2000.

On March 17 that year, Staffordshire-born venture capitalist Jon Moulton announced that his company Alchemy Partners would be buying the Longbridge plant from BMW, along with the MG and Rover brand names, and production rights to the Rover 25, 45 and 75 model lines, along with the MGF sports car and the original Mini. 

The news sparked fury among union leaders, particularly as Moulton's long-term plans for the company became clear. The businessman said Rover's days as a volume manufacturer were over. Initially, he proposed dropping the Rover brand, which he saw as tarnished, and renaming the business as the MG Car Company. In the longer term, he planned substantially reduce the 9,000-strong workforce, and restructure MG as a niche producer of lightweight sports cars.

Tony Woodley, chief motor industry negotiator for the Transport and General Workers Union, accused BMW of betraying the workforce, and organised a "people's march" through the city on April 1, 2000. He branded the demonstration a 'Battle for Britain and British manufacturing'. John Hemming, a millionaire Liberal Democrat councillor in Birmingham, suggested the creation of a rival consortium. Historian and Express & Star writer Carl Chinn also entered the fray, declaring 'We can't let Rover die'.