Thomas Humber built bicycles from the 1860s, and his company, Humber Limited, was formed in 1887 with works at Beeston in Nottinghamshire and in Coventry. Humber built its first cars in 1896, and moved into a large new works at Stoke, on the edge of Coventry, in 1908; the Beeston works closed that year.
In 1931 the Rootes brothers took a majority shareholding, and the following year Humber became the holding company for the Rootes Group, alongside Hillman. Humber took the upmarket end of the Rootes range, and its cars earned a reputation for quality and comfort. The Snipe and Super Snipe were widely used as staff cars during the Second World War, and after it the Hawk and Super Snipe remained favourites with officials and the professional classes.
From the 1950s Humbers shared more of their engineering with Hillman, and the Sceptre of 1961 was the last new Humber model. Chrysler took over Rootes in 1967 and ended Humber car production in 1976.
