TODAY marks the end of an era in motoring history.

After a career spanning almost 70 years the last ever Land Rover Defender will roll off the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) production line at Solihull in the West Midlands.

Conceived as a way of ramping up post war car production for the minimum amount of money, the Land Rover was created by two brothers, Spencer and Maurice Wilks.

Maurice, who was chief engineer at Rover, owned a 250 acre estate on Anglesey and used to patrol it in an ex-World War Two Jeep. When the Jeep wore out he needed a versatile vehicle for the farm, capable of doubling up as a light tractor from time to time. Using a Jeep chassis and running gear as the starting point, Maurice got to work creating a prototype and convinced Rover bosses that his plan had commercial potential.

The new vehicle was only supposed to be a stop-gap until Rover got back into full saloon car production. As a result, Maurice's baby had to be developed with minimal outlay.

That suited Maurice fine because the low-cost nature of the project meant he could get on with it free from managerial interference.

The original prototype had a centrally-mounted steering wheel, just like a tractor, which removed the need to build the Land Rover (as it would be called) in right and left hand drive versions.

Naturally, given the running gear, it shared the Jeep's 80cm wheelbase but the bodywork was distinctively different.

Mindful of the British weather, it came with a hard roof, and the bodywork was made from aluminium because steel was still in short supply, while early newspaper adverts stressed the Land Rover's agricultural potential, showing it pulling a plough and lugging bales of hay.

The prototype was a lash-up of the best bits from Rover and Jeep. Maurice used a Rover 1.6 litre 4-cylinder petrol engine driving through a four-speed manual gearbox from the Rover P3 saloon which in turn was coupled to a Willys/Ford 2-speed transfer gearbox taken from the Jeep donor vehicle.

For production, in 1948, the Land Rover received a different transfer box which was entirely designed in-house (to avoid paying expense fees for the Jeep/Ford version). This incorporated a Rover freewheel mechanism, which disconnected the front axle on the overrun, to provide a crude, but effective, permanent four-wheel-drive. The centrally-mounted steering wheel was also ditched before the car was launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show, on April 30, 1948.

Although the Land Rover had been conceived as a stop-gap with a production run of two or three years, sales raced ahead of all expectations.

The following year Land Rover launched the "Station Wagon", with a larger wooden-framed body built by coachbuilder Tickford, best known for its work with Rolls-Royce.

The wagon was relatively plush in comparison with the standard Land Rover, having leather seats, a heater, a one-piece laminated windscreen, a tin-plate spare wheel cover, some interior trim and other options. Unfortunately, that was reflected in the steep asking price and only a few hundred were built, mainly for the export market.

The Land Rover appealed to farmers and landed gentry alike. In 1951 the then Princess Elizabeth was photographed standing in an open-top Land Rover as she deputised for her father to present the King's Colour to the Royal Air Force at a parade in London's Hyde Park. She took delivery of her first one shortly after coming to the throne in 1952 and has used Land Rovers ever since. As a result of this blue blood patronage Land Rover holds a royal warrant.

Today's Defender differs in many significant ways to those original Series 1 Land Rovers but remains identifiably the same vehicle.

later today the company will hold a small event for workers at the Solihull plant to mark the end of Defender production. the company says it will be a celebration but for many of the men and women who built them it will feel more like a wake.