1932–1982 · Dagenham, Halewood and Seaview · and the plant everyone confuses with Austin’s
Ford of Britain built more cars than anyone here — and assembled them at Seaview, Lower Hutt for fifty-two years.
Ford came to Britain in 1911, into an old tram works at Trafford Park, Manchester, with sixty people. Three years later it was running Britain’s first moving assembly line, twenty-one cars an hour. Dagenham opened in October 1931 as the largest car plant in Britain and in Europe, building the Model AA truck and the Model A. Briggs Motor Bodies was bought in 1953, bringing plants at Doncaster, Southampton, Croydon and Romford with it. Ford US had held 54 per cent of Ford Motor Company Limited; the offer for the other 46 per cent was accepted in 1960 and paid in full at the end of January 1961 — about £120 million, which The Times ran under the headline “Ford Money”. Halewood, on Merseyside, put its first car down the line on 8 March 1963 — an Anglia 105E, registered 1 KF, driven off by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.
In New Zealand the plant is Seaview, Lower Hutt — and it is Ford. Petone is Austin. The two are a few minutes apart and they are mixed up constantly. Before 1936 Ford here was the Colonial Motor Company, and CMC did well enough that Ford did not take the business over directly until then; CMC kept the retail side, which is why some CMC-owned Ford dealerships are among the oldest in the world. Production started at Seaview in October 1936, before the building was finished, and ran continuously until 1988 — fifty-two years. Model Y and Model C, V8s, the Prefect from March 1939, the Anglia on sale from July 1940, then Popular, Consul, Zephyr, Zodiac, Cortina and Escort. During the war Seaview turned out 10,423 vehicles including Bren Gun Carriers, 5.7 million hand grenades and 1.2 million mortar rounds. In 1966 alone it built 2,118 Anglias, 4,898 Cortinas, 3,103 Zephyrs and Zodiacs and 2,128 Falcons — 12,337 vehicles and 19.4 per cent of the New Zealand market.
Ford UK — the range, and what changes between the cars
- Hydraulic brakes arrive twice
-
1950/51 on the Consul and Zephyr Mk1 — the first hydraulic-braked Ford UK car. October 1953 on the 100E — the first hydraulic-braked small Ford. Every rod-braked small Ford stayed rod-braked to the end of its life. There is no mid-life conversion on any of them.
- The trap that costs money
- The rod-braked, 6-volt Popular 103E was sold alongside the hydraulic, 12-volt 100E for six years, to 1959. A 1958 Popular has rod brakes and 6 volts; a 1958 Anglia has hydraulic brakes and 12 volts. The year does not identify the system on a British Ford. The model code does.
- Consul, Zephyr, Zodiac
-
Consul is the four-cylinder base car, Mk1 and Mk2 only — from the Mk3 the four-cylinder car is the Zephyr 4. Zephyr is the six. Zodiac is the luxury version, never a separate body. From the Mk3, four headlamps mean Zodiac; a Zephyr 6 has two. Ford then reused “Consul” on the Classic, the Capri, the Corsair and the 1972 car — all different machines.
- The three engine families
-
Side-valve 933cc and 1172cc, 1932 to 1962. Kent overhead-valve from the 1959 Anglia, pre-crossflow then crossflow from September 1967. Pinto single overhead cam from the 1970 Cortina Mk3. Essex V4 and V6 from 1965. Kent and Pinto ran side by side for years — which is exactly why people order the wrong gasket set.
- MacPherson struts — a genuine world first
- The 1950 Consul is the first production car in the world with MacPherson struts. The French 1949 Vedette is cited for this constantly and the citation is wrong — it was designed on wishbones before MacPherson arrived and only got struts in 1954, after Simca bought the factory.
- Where your car was put together
-
Seaview, Lower Hutt, October 1936 to 1988. New Zealand CKD rules of the period required the chassis to arrive with engine and gearbox fitted and nothing else attached, and upholstery could not arrive sewn — which is why a locally trimmed New Zealand car differs from a British one inside. Wiri, in south Auckland, came later and built Falcons, Lasers and Telstars, not the British models here.
- Earth polarity
-
We cannot give you a date and we will not invent one. 12-volt positive earth is confirmed on the 100E; 6 volt is confirmed on the Popular 103E and the Pilot. For everything else, no source we would stand behind states positive or negative. Check your own car before you order a coil, a radio or a regulator.
