THREE generations of the same family came together to mark the 60th anniversary of Mini Plant Swindon this week.

On Wednesday the Noble family joined with BMW’s Board member for production Mr Oliver Zipse to celebrate six decades of production at Plant Swindon.

Michael Noble Senior started work at the site in February 1956 with all three of his sons completing apprenticeships at the plant. Mr Noble’s son, David Noble is a network quality manager and his son, Ben Noble is completing his apprenticeship at the plant.

Michael Noble Senior’s other son, also Mike Noble, is currently working on a secondment to BMW Plant Eisenach in Germany.

Oliver Zipse, board member for production, said: “I am delighted to be celebrating 60 years of history at Plant Swindon, and to share our pride in the achievements of the plant. We have a highly experienced and reliable team working here, whose expertise has seen Swindon become an important centre of competence within the BMW Group.

“To be able to celebrate the achievements with three generations of the same family is a special honour.”

It was clearly a very proud moment for the family. David Noble said: “Dad was so delighted that we all found good jobs here at the site. He’s amazed at the way the site has changed over the years. There are so many opportunities on offer such as the degree Ben is doing as part of his apprenticeship, or to travel and spend time in other parts of the company.”

Construction of the site began in 1955, the first panels pressed in December of that year. The plant immediately enjoyed a period of rapid expansion, fuelled by a fast-growing post-war car market in the UK and overseas. Complete car shells, painted and trimmed car bodies, sub-assemblies and pressings were supplied to a wide variety of car-makers in the UK and mainland Europe.

Today more than 35 per cent of Plant Swindon’s production is exported, to BMW’s Leipzig, Dingolfing and Regensburg plants, and to the Nedcar factory in the Netherlands where MINIs are made.

The greater part of its production goes to MINI’s Plant Oxford operation. In 2014, that consisted of 38,059,327 body panels and 4,372,288 sub-assemblies amounting to 86,065 tonnes of high precision pressed steel components. .

Swindon currently produces substantial quantities of steel pressings for the MINI, BMW 2 Series Active Tourer and BMW X1 ranges, a large proportion of them for export as well as for MINI Plant Oxford.

Chris Mark, plant manager, said: “We have a great team here at Plant Swindon, and every credit should be given to our employees. We are proud of this milestone anniversary, of our many achievements and the countless hours of work put in by those before us.

"We’re looking forward to the future and the next exciting developments that the MINI and BMW brands will bring us.”