90 July 2019 MiniWorld
This year Vera and Richard Newton celebrate the 40th
anniversary of the vehicle trim business which began on their
kitchen table. We look at Newton Commercial’s remarkable
history and how their son Jonny is taking it forward.
Words: Karen Drury. Photos: Jim Jupp and Newton Commercial’s archive.
A L L T H E
TRIMMINGS
that he met his future wife, Vera.
“Peter Browning came to see me
after about 11 or 12 months. He said:
‘I’m sorry but you’ve got to go back
to Cowley. Not because we want you
to, but because we’ve got to close the
department. This is when Lord Stokes
had arrived and he started carving up
the whole of BMC, Triumph, you name
it. He did a lot of damage in that period.R
ichard Newton was 16
when, in 1962, he became
an apprentice at the Morris
Motors factory at Cowley, nearOxford. “There were 12 of us per year.“
During his fi ve-year apprenticeship
he spent a few months in successive
departments. “We went through
production, engineering, workshops,
maintenance – the maintenance
workshops were huge and they were
usually on strike most of the time.”
Having an interest in motorsport he
asked to spend time in the Competitions
Department at Abingdon. “I was
involved in the Cooper Ss that were
rallying and racing at the time. I learnt
in that 12 months how to do things
properly as far as engineering was
concerned.” It was around this timeJonny Newton (left), Managing
Director of Newton Commercial,
with his parents Vera and Richard
who co-founded the successful
vehicle-trimming business in 1979.