Ford Trafford Park Factory

The first Ford model to be sold in the UK was the Model A, which was first launched in the American market in 1903. Two of the cars were imported to Britain in the same year, and since then the Ford company's British sales had grown thanks to an enthusiastic and talented entrepreneur named Percival Perry. Cars at this time were extremely expensive, and since Henry Ford insisted on payment in full before he would release cars for export from the New York City dockside, Perry's commercial energy was under constant pressure from shortage of credit. Nevertheless, by 1911 Perry was selling over 400 US built Fords per year from premises in London's prestigious Shaftesbury Avenue. It was determined that any further expansion would require more space than was available in central London, and Perry looked for a larger site, while retaining the Shaftesbury Avenue property as a showroom/office complex. ==Origins==

A disused carriage works at the Trafford Park industrial zone near Manchester was acquired. The original plan was to assemble Ford cars using parts shipped in from the United States. The need to invest massively in high cost tooling in order to become a volume car producer had not yet come about, and the former carriage works was assembling Fords by October 1911. By now, Ford's principal model was the Model T, and this is the car that was assembled at the new plant. ==Development==

The need to import parts from the American Midwest must have complicated the assembly process, since the Trafford Park plant quickly took to purchasing components on its own account far closer to home. For two years, bodies were delivered to the Trafford Park assembly location individually on handcarts from a firm of body builders called Scott Brothers, located down the road. finding customers for the Manchester built Fords does not seem to have been a problem. Trafford Park was on schedule to produce 10,000 Fords in 1914 when the outbreak of the war intervened. Understanding of mass production techniques advanced considerably between 1914 and 1918, even if the output of the cutting edge technologies was now represented by munitions. Henry Ford took a pacifist line, but it appears that the Trafford Park plant remained employed for the production of vehicles, possibly with the emphasis on agricultural tractors. When peace broke out, the Trafford Park plant was extended, and output grew rapidly. in the same month, the first vehicle emerged from the new Dagenham facility. ==Shadow factory: 1939–1944==

In 1936, under the shadow factory plan, the British government appointed Herbert Austin to head a new team within the Air Ministry, to assess and invest in expanding the British aircraft industry in preparation for any future war requirements. Austin was briefed to build nine new factories, and expand or develop the existing facilities at all British located car manufacturing plants, to enable them to quickly switch to aircraft production. Trafford Park proved highly enticing for producing the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Located close to both major transport links, and giving easy access for the finished product to the Avro factory at Chadderton (for use in the Avro Lancaster). Redeveloped by Ford from 1938, it was designed as two separate sections to minimise the impact of bomb damage on production. As an important industrial area, Trafford Park suffered from extensive bombing, particularly during the Manchester Blitz of December 1940. On the night of 23 December 1940, the Metropolitan-Vickers aircraft factory in Mosley Road was badly damaged, with the loss of the first 13 MV-built Avro Manchester bombers in final assembly. The redeveloped Ford Trafford Park Factory was bombed only a few days after its opening in May 1941. In total, the factory manufactured well over 34,000 engines during the war period, closing at the end of March 1946. ==References==