In 1857 Josiah Turner and James Starley formed the Coventry Sewing Machine Company,[1] and recruited skilled engineers from the London area to join them, one of whom was William Hillman.

Hillman had moved into Abingdon House in Stoke Aldermoor near Coventry and decided that a sensible plan would be to set up a car factory in its grounds.

In 1907 Hillman-Coatalen was founded by William Hillman with the Breton Louis Coatalen as designer and chief engineer.

Following the fashion of the time a Straight Eight of 2.6 litres and Hillman's first use of overhead valves came in 1928 but soon gained a reputation for big-end problems.

The 1930s saw a return to side valves with a 6-cylinder Wizard first produced in April 1931 and, in 1932, inspired by the Rootes brothers, the first car to carry the Minx name.

This had a 1185 cc four-cylinder engine and went through a series of updates in body style and construction until the end of the Second World War.

A complete departure in 1963 was the Hillman Imp using a Coventry Climax derived all alloy, 875 cc rear engine and built in a brand new factory in Linwood, Scotland.

Chrysler had assumed complete control of Rootes by 1967, and the first new Hillman model whose development was financed by the American giant was the Avenger of 1970.

At this point, Hunter production was shelved and the Avenger was rebadged as a Talbot until it was finally withdrawn from sale at the end of 1981.