Land Rover's History with Red Wharf Bay
St. David's Park - April 13th 2018
Land Rover, one of the worlds most recognisable and highly-regarded automobile manufacturers, has its roots deeply connected to Red Wharf Bay, right outside our park. In fact, the first ever Land Rover design sketch was made with a stick in the very sand that our Holiday Home Owners spend their summer days on!
Most of us can't leave the house without passing at least a handful of Defenders, Discoveries or Range Rovers on our journey and the Land Rover concept (there was no such thing as the Defender back then) was created right here, outside our doorstep.
Here's the story...
Maurice Wilks, born 1904, worked for various car manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic during the industry's relative infancy. Working up the ranks Maurice became chief engineer of Rover in 1930 but, like in most industries of the period, the outbreak and subsequent years of war between 1939 - 1945. After the war, in 1947, Maurice split his time between his house in Warwickshire and a farm on Anglesey that he bought as a retreat. On the farm he used an old Willys military jeep and whilst staying on his farm he started to toy with the idea of manufacturing a British 4x4 specifically for farms. He spoke to his brother Spencer about his idea and even drew the first sketch in the sand at Red Wharf Bay, right outside our park!
Planning and production moved on rapidly from here and the first Land Rovers rolled off production in 1948.
Today, the car manufacturer sells around 621,000 cars a year - and you could argue it all started here yards away from St. David's Park. Maurice died in 1963 at his beloved home in Anglesey. He is buried in Llanfair yn Cwmwd, near Newborough.
<< Back To Blog