The
Rootes Group developed into one of the largest car manufacturing businesses in Britain but its origins can be traced back to a humble cycle shop in Hawkhurst, Kent in late Victorian times, started by William Rootes. The first cycles he sold were manufactured by Humber. A strong believer in education, he sent his sons William and Reginald to Cranbrook School, and by the time they were to be thrust into the world of commerce, a motor agency had been added to the cycle shop. Following the First World War, William Rootes junior decided to set up a car firm in Maidstone, and Reginald quickly joined him. In the next 40-odd years they established an industrial empire, but a few short, troubled years after that it was all gone. With many wartime vehicles now demobbed into civilian hands, manufacturers were beginning to struggle, but Rootes was to be established in just 6 years as the largest motor distribution chain in Europe.