- Ford Motor Co Ltd
- Ford Motor Co (England) Ltd; Henry Ford & Son Ltd
- Laindon, Essex
- In 1904 Ford Motor Co's first British agency, Central Motor Car Co, was established in Long Acre, London. Ford Motor Co had been established by Henry Ford to manufacture cars in Detroit, USA, in 1903 and introduced the successful mass-produced Model T in 1908. In 1909 Ford Motor Co (England) Ltd was established, with a showroom in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. The first UK dealership opened in Southampton in 1910 and in 1911 an assembly plant – the first Ford factory outside North America – opened in a former tram factory in Trafford Park, Manchester, to make the Model T. In 1913 6,000 cars were produced and the Model T had 30% of the UK automobile market. Initially Ford’s cars were built from imported chassis and local mechanical parts and in 1914 Britain's first moving assembly line for car production was introduced (building 21 cars an hour). In 1917 Henry Ford & Son Ltd, an Irish subsidiary, was established and a plant opened in Cork, Ireland, which initially built tractors and, from 1921, cars. After the First World War the Trafford Park plant was extended, and in 1919 41% of cars registered in Britain were Fords. In 1928 a new company, Ford Motor Co Ltd, was formed with three US directors (Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Charles Sorensen) and four British directors (Sir Percy Perry, Roland Kitson, Sir John Davies and Lord Illingworth) and a capital of £7 million. The new company acquired all Ford's European and Middle Eastern business for 60% of its capital and the balance was made available for public subscription. In 1929 Ford began construction of a deep-water port on the river Thames at Dagenham, East London, which opened in 1931, producing the Model AA truck and Model A car. Sales and profit growth was however constrained by the depression.
In the USA Ford build nearly 4,000 8- and 12-cylinder Liberty engines after the US entered the First World War, reducing the cost of the engines and developing a 2-cylinder 40-hp engine for an unmanned flying bomb. Ford remained interested in aviation and purchased the stock and assets of the Stout Metal Airplane Co, which became a division of the Ford Motor Co in 1925. In 1930 two Ford three-engined monoplanes were brought to the UK for demonstration work in the UK and Europe and assembled at Hooton Park aerodrome. In 1931 Ford acquired the premises of the Sussex Aero Club, Ford, near Littlehampton, Sussex, as a service aerodrome for Ford aircraft. In 1933 a smaller, cheaper car the Model Y was introduced and manufactured in large numbers at Dagenham and Cork. During the Second World war the Dagenham plant turned out 360,000 vehicles and a new factory in Urmston, Manchester, made 34,000 Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engines. After the war normal car production resumed at Dagenham and factories were acquired in Walthamstow, Essex, and Langley, Buckinghamshire. In 1953 Briggs Motor Bodies was taken over to secure the company’s supply chain and acquire further plants at Doncaster, Southampton, Croydon and Romford. A new factory was opened at Halewood, near Liverpool, to make the Anglia in 1962 and at Basildon to make tractors in 1964. In 1965, a further plant was acquired at Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea, to make chassis components and axles. The Ford Transit was introduced in 1965, the Escort in 1967 and the Fiesta in 1976. In 1989 Ford acquired Jaguar, which was to become one of its luxury brands in its Premier Automotive Group, along with Aston Martin, Volvo, Land Rover and Rover. In 2008 the company sold the Jaguar and Land Rover businesses to Tata Motors and in 2013 ended over a century of vehicle manufacturing in the UK when the assembly of its Transit vans was moved to Turkey.
- Rolls-Royce Merlin (1933).
Banham Russ, The Ford century: Ford Motor Company and the innovations that shaped the world (2002); David Burgess-Wise, Ford at Dagenham: The rise and fall of Detroit in Europe (2007); Eric Dymock, The Ford in Britain centenary file (2011).
Air Supply Board correspondence with Ford Motor Co 1939-44 [AVIA10/228]; Ministry of Supply papers re iron ore supply to Ford Motor Co Ltd 1940 [AVIA 22/3064]; Ministry of Aircraft Production papers re Rolls-Royce Merlin engines manufactured by Ford Motor Co 1939-43 [AVIA15/41-42];
Complaint of Harry Ferguson against Ford Motor Co 1948; staff pay papers 1974-83; training course manual on body and assembly operations method improvement 1969; brochure on 1970s accounting for vehicles 1969 [5-FOR-1:92/46/26; 76-BLE-61:80/97/61; 75-FOR-1:80/107/1].
Minutes of meetings with Ransomes, Sims & Jeffries re interests in South Africa 1947 [TR RAN/AD7/88-89]; patent re semi-mounted implements 1910-65 [TR 2BOM/328]; instructional and promotional leaflets and price lists re Ford tractors 1940s-80s.
Papers of H F Morton, executive engineer at Ford Motor Co, incls editions of Ford News, typescript re working for Ford at Trafford Park, business photograph albums and correspondence re his resignation 1905-75 [Morton/1-6].
Manchester Central Library Archives
Photographs of Ford Motor Co's works at Trafford Park 1920s [373/23, 580/47].
Barking and Dagenham Archives and Local Studies Service
Film made by Ford Motor Co re the history of the business 1953 [ACQ20013/124]; minute book of shop stewards’ committee with references to strikes 1968-77 [ACQ20013/115].
Modern Records Centre, Warwick University
Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers out letters, incl to Ford 1916-17, 1931 [MSS.78/ASW/3/1/3, 64]; company publications, incl trade union and shop stewards’ publications 1954-72 [MSS.202/5/13].
Transport and General Workers Union minutes and circulars re Ford Motor Co at Basildon 1958-62 [D/DU1592/2-3].
Goldsmiths University of London
Ford Motor Co employee information circular re pay offer 1973 [SEID/1/14/2/5]; papers re prospective employee joining medical with notes for applicants and map of Dagenham premises 1973 [SEID/1/14/2/7].
North East Wales Archives - Ruthin
Copy letter from Edward Hughes re possible siting of factory at Wrexham 1924 [DD/G/553].
Aero engines photograph album 1939-45 [X002-5642]; building and site drawings re Ford Motor Co aero engines shadow factory, Manchester 1945 [X003-6006].