Many owners of classic vehicles built by the Rootes group, particularly those on the Yahoo Hillman group on the internet, will know of my project to digitise the workshop manuals and Parts Lists for as many Rootes vehicles as possible. This started due to my accumulation of many such documents after years of ownership of Hillmans, Sunbeams, Sunbeam Talbots, Humbers and Singers. The project started around 1995, the intention being to scan these documents to high quality PDF format and hyperlink all the cross-references as well as making the documents searchable, utilising all the benefits of the modern computer technology. It soon became clear that these aims were not going to be so easily met as it may originally have seemed.

In 2002 I suffered a stroke, which put an end to my “automotive tinkering” and, in theory, gave me more time to spend on the project, however progress has been positive, but far slower than I would have liked.

At this point I have to say thank you to all the people who supported the project in its early years by purchasing what I was able to produce at the time and providing feedback on the good and bad aspects. Unfortunately some of those friends are no longer with us so the continuation of the project is dedicated to them.

I am pleased to say that this project has been approved by PSA Peugeot Citroen, the current owners of the copyright for the original documents, as well as having the support of the Rootes Archive Centre Trust, licencees of the various Rootes group brand names.

Sometime in 2010 I realised that I needed to ignore some of my personal aims for the project and incorporate some of the ideas fed back to me by fellow enthusiasts who were using my early documents. Thus, I decided that the format of the documents should follow that of the original, enabling the user to print either individual pages or a complete manual for their own use, should they prefer that format.for those using the pdf file on a computer, I decided to hyperlink the entries on the contents/index page, as well as expanding some of those to help with navigation. Also the files would be made searchable.

My original intention was to distribute the files on cd, which was much cheaper than shipping the bulky original printed manuals. However with changes in technology it soon became clear that the better option was to provide access by means of electronic downloads.

2025 update

Having now produced 20 manuals and parts lists in pdf format, I have decided that the time has come to wind down the project and to cease scanning any further documents, although I do have a few others already scanned to my computer, which will get completed as time and health allow.

All available documents are now listed in this “shop”.

All files are identified by my unique reference number. Manuals all begin "M" and parts lists start "PL".