page_title: Rootes Group
section_title: Manufacturing — Humber Limited
hierarchical_section_title: Rootes Group / History and corporate development / Manufacturing — Humber Limited
caption_attribution_description: 1936 Hillman Hawk Sports Tourer by Martin Walter (DVLA) manf 1936, 3181cc Heskin Hall Steam Fair 2014
context_page_description: The Rootes Group or Rootes Motors Limited was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. Run from London's West End, the manufacturer was based in the Midlands and the distribution and dealers business in the south of England. In the decade beginning 1928 the Rootes brothers, William and Reginald, made prosperous by their very successful distribution and servicing business, were keen to enter manufacturing for closer control of the products they were selling. One brother has been termed the power unit, the other the steering and braking system.
  With the financial support of Prudential Assurance, the two brothers bought some well-known British motor manufacturers, including Hillman, Humber, Singer, Sunbeam, Talbot, Commer and Karrier, controlling them through their parent, Rootes' 60-per-cent-owned subsidiary, Humber Limited.
  At its height in 1960, Rootes had manufacturing plants in the Midlands at Coventry and Birmingham, in southern England at Acton, Luton and Dunstable, and a brand-new plant in the west of Scotland at Linwood.
context_section_description: A particular effort was put into overseas sales and it became clear the export opportunities warranted a move into car manufacture, which was achieved in 1928 by the purchase of controlling interests in first Hillman Motor Car Company Limited followed a year later by Humber Limited and Commercial Cars Limited. Hillman and Commer were made wholly owned subsidiaries of Humber Limited and the Rootes brothers' holding eventually became 60 percent of the Humber ordinary shares. The Rootes brothers could now show their ability to manufacture handsome cars with a strong sales appeal.
caption: Hillman Hawk 3-litre, 1936
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Hillman Hawk Sports Tourer by Martin Walter (1936)", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D5100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2014:08:18 21:55:00", "Image ExifOffset": "300", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[0, 0, 0/0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[0, 0, 0/0]", "Image GPSInfo": "960", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1158", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7743", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:05:31 13:50:06", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:05:31 13:50:06", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1245723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "9/2", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "71/20", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Cloudy weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "38", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "70", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1333", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "57", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "6377632", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[16, 85, 7/2, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "16.0-85.0 mm f/3.5-5.6"}