FROM Albert through Bean, Calcutt and Day-Leeds, down the alphabet they went, taking in Mendip and Orpington, Perfex and Straker-Squire, right down to Vulcan and ending with Zephyr.

"They" were the 98 British - yes, British - entrants in the 1920 motor show, the first to be put on by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Rover figured there, in between Rolls-Royce and Rubury-Lindsay, though Morris Garages didn't begin sporty modifications of standard Cowleys for another two years. I wonder if the nation mourned the Rubury-Lindsay's demise.

By now, we may know the fate of Rover and MG and, much more importantly, of 6,000 jobs. Sadly, industries being wiped out are no novelty up here, and many will have been through what those Midlands families are feeling this week, but we've never lost one with names so emotive for the man in the national street (and this is generally a male thing) as makes of car.

Well, I'll give you steam locomotives, but no loco works was ever firmly tied to producing one particular class of loco as car factories are tied to a brand. The same could be said of shipyards. But what can be said of both is that the man in the street was never in the market for a tank engine or a tanker.

I've often wondered, as the field narrowed over the years, why the loss of a name, a marque, of car seems to stir so much emotion. One goes; others arrive.

After all, far more housewives bought packets of Rinso than ever bought, or had in the family, a car of any sort. Rinso just quietly went down the plughole and, if we didn't use it ourselves, it was a long time before we noticed it'd gone. Dirt's still in but Tide is out now, and so are Omo and Oyxdol. Daz arrived 50 years ago and Surf and Ariel have washed in. Persil persists.

Product names, by and large, are just one in a range. Old ones go, but they don't take swathes of jobs with them, and new ones appear, without wailing and gnashing of teeth. Not so with cars which, to their credit, also seem to be able to create tremendous brand loyalty. With no brand allegiance in any other purchases, our household has had only two makes of car in the past 36 years: five Renaults then four Vauxhalls.

The best anyone can do nowadays to support the "native" car industry, whatever has happened in Longbridge this week, is to buy one actually put together in this country, no matter who owns the firm. I'm pleased to discover our family workhorse comes into that category.

* One household name which has been with us for decades is Be-Ro, and its invaluable little cookery books, now in their 40th edition. Mine go back to edition 12, but that doesn't solve a problem for a reader who e-mailed me in her search for vermicelli cake, featured, she believes, in one of the early editions. I'm on the case, but if anyone has the recipe in the family archives and would be willing to pass it on, please get in touch.