
It is best known as a rugged, durable car that can wade through mud, floods or desert sand.

But the Land Rover Defender - popularised by the Royals, film-makers and even football managers - will cease production on Friday.

The classic model, today called the Defender, has become the most recognisable off-road car since it first appeared in 1948.

Motor enthusiasts have lamented the end of an era, calling it the 'death of an icon'.

Queen Elizabeth riding in a Land Rover with the Duke of Edinburgh, in September 1953, reviewing 72,000 ex service men and women

Queen Elizabeth II riding in a Land Rover with Prince Philip, through the World Scout Jubilee Jamboree camp in Sutton Park, Warwickshire

Queen Elizabeth II riding in a Land Rover with the Duke of Edinburgh, as they pass down the lines of Venom fighter planes as they inspect No. 151 Squadron during their visit to RAF Leuchars, Fife, Scotland, in June 1957

Queen Elizabeth II, with her sons Prince Andrew (left) and Prince Edward waiting for Princess Anne's arrival in the Cross-Country event of the Windsor Horse Trials in April, 1972 - the Land Rover Discovery will cease production on Friday

The Queen, who popularised the Land Rover, with Prince Philip at a children's rally in Melbourne in March 1977

The Queen driving herself in a Land Rover, in January 2000, to the stables on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk

Featuring in the 2012 Bond movie Skyfall and Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow, the Defender name can be traced back to the early 1990s.

But effectively, the popular 4x4 vehicle, which is exported all around the world, represents the continuation of the very first Land Rover which came on to the scene 68 years ago and was modelled on the war-time jeeps.

Since the 1950s, the Queen has regularly been spotted as either a passenger of driver in a Land Rover.

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.

In the following years she used Land Rovers during several public engagements, such as during visits to Australia in 1954 and the Channel Islands in 1957.

The Queen stood in a Land Rover at the 1955 European Horse Trials in Windsor Great Park to give her a better view of the action.

The vehicle has also proved a hit with other royals including the Prince and Princess of Wales, who waved to well-wishers as they were driven along a beach in Australia in 1988.

A decade later, Prince Harry was photographed wearing military camouflage as he arrived at Highgrove House, Gloucestershire, in a Land Rover for his father's 50th birthday party.

A 1950 Series 1 Land Rover on show at the Royal Horticultural Hall in central London - the Discovery will cease production on Friday

The Land Rover in a blizzard, in April 1963, helping other motorists in difficulties - it is an iconic and much-loved British vehicle

A police Land Rover driving on Brancaster beach, in North Norfolk, in August 2000, the car had changed 'very little' in its lifetime

Lara Croft's Tomb Raider Land Rover Discovery being driven in a parade in 2006 - the car will cease production this Friday

British soldiers used the classic car to carry out patrols on the streets of Belfast during the Troubles.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary also used Land Rovers. A 1999 image shows one of their vehicles burning in Portadown, County Armagh following a petrol bomb attack.

The vehicles were used by British troops during conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan because of their ability to overcome large areas of sand.

Bob Paisley and Matt Busby - the celebrated former Liverpool and Manchester United managers - paraded around Wembley Stadium in a Land Rover before the 1983 Charity Shield.

A number of film-makers have also chosen Land Rovers to make their action sequences as exciting as possible.

Land Rover Defenders were used in a car chase during the opening sequence of 2012 James Bond movie Skyfall.

The vehicles also featured in Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001 and the 2014 sci-fi adventure Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise.

The Marquess of Bath, backed by an armed warden, watching a lion at his game reserve at his ancestral Wiltshire home in Longleat

Members of the Royal Archers escorting the Army Land Rover carrying the Stone of Destiny across Edinburgh Castle Esplanade in 1996

Members of the Brigade Recce Force, in the northern Kuwaiti desert, in a Land Rover, pictured in March 2003

A military Land Rover struggling though a flooded area at Safwan, near the Kuwaiti border in Iraq, in January 2006

A Land Rover piles through the mire at Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire, during a live firing demonstration in October 2006

The 40th Regiment The Royal Artillery in a Land Rover during a patrol in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, in August 2009

Jim Holder, editorial director of magazines Autocar and What Car?, said the Defenders 'appeal to every level of society'.

He told the Press Association: 'It's a classless vehicle. Anyone can drive it. You might be a farmer trying to get over the muddiest field or it might be the Queen driving around Windsor. Neither would surprise you if you saw it.

'It's got that ubiquity where it can be at home in Chelsea but doesn't look out of place painted white in the middle of a war zone.

'It claims to do everything and to a degree it can do everything.'

Mr Holder believes Jaguar Land Rover made the decision to cease production of Defenders because 'regulations have finally caught up with it'.

He said: 'They haven't been able to update crash safety or the engine emissions quick enough.

'The world has overtaken it to a point where they can no longer keep on the right side of emissions and safety laws.'

JLR is working on a replacement vehicle for the Defender, but Mr Holder claimed it will be a 'massive challenge' to match the status of the original.

'It's a charming vehicle. It's a go-anywhere, rugged symbol of solid construction,' he said.

'But the truth is the Defender today doesn't sell in high enough numbers. The challenge is how to broaden its appeal without ruining the key aspects that make it so appealing.'

Devoted fans of the model say they are 'gutted' about the vehicle's demise.

'It's the death of an icon,' said Simon Collins, Warwickshire and West Midlands Land Rover Club (WWMLRC) secretary.

A JLR spokesman said the company will hold a small event for workers at the Solihull plant, in the West Midlands, on Friday to mark the end of Defender production.

A young boy at the wheel of scale model of a Land Rover in Northampton, in July 1998 - the car has become iconic across the world

It has become synonymous with the Royals since 1948 - here, Zara Phillips is pictured unveiling a special edition Land Rover Defender

Prince Charles, sitting in a 1948 open Land Rover, during a visit to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the car in May 2008

The Webb Ellis trophy on board a Land Rover at Eastbourne prior to the start of the Rugby World Cup last September

The Land Rover was used to help those affected by the floods in December - pictured here is Margaret McCraken, 79, in Carlisle