Ford Dagenham assembly plant
Encyclopedia
Ford Dagenham is a major automotive factory located in Dagenham
, United Kingdom
operated by the Ford of Europe subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company
. The plant opened in 1931 and has produced 10,980,368 cars and over 37,000,000 engines in its history.
Vehicle assembly ceased at the plant in 2002 but it continues as a major production site with the capacity to assemble 1.4 million engines a year. In 2008 the plant produced around 1,050,000 engines and was the largest producer of Ford diesel engine
s globally. Employment at the plant peaked at around 40,000 workers in 1953, and the plant currently employs around 4,000 people. The plant covers around 475 acres and has received over £800 million of capital investment since the year 2000.
which it would replace, needed good water access. Dagenham on the southern estuarial edge of Essex
offered the prospect of a deep water port which would allow for bulk deliveries of coal and steel on a far larger scale than the barges of the Manchester Ship Canal
could manage at the old plant. In 1924 Ford Motor Company purchased land in the Dagenham marshes for £167,700.
On 17 May 1929 Edsel Ford
marked the start of construction on the site by cutting the first turf in the marshes. Construction on the site continued for 28 months and required approximately 22,000 concrete piles to be driven down through the clay of the marshland site in order adequately to support a factory that from the start was planned to incorporate its own steel foundry and coal fired power station.
At the time when the plant was planned, western governments were increasingly responding to economic depression with protectionist policies
. This was the context in which Henry Ford
’s policy of setting up relatively autonomous car-manufacturing businesses in principal overseas markets can be seen. The drive for self reliance implicit in including within the Dagenham plant its own steel foundry and power station nevertheless went beyond anything attempted by other European mass-production auto-makers such as Morris
in England, Opel
in Germany or Citroën
in France. Inspiration for Ford’s Dagenham plant came more directly from Ford’s own Rouge River plant on the edge of Detroit.
The first vehicle out of the Dagenham plant was a Ford AA light truck
, produced in October 1931. However, the British economy was in a depressed condition at this time, and the surviving local market for light trucks was dominated by Morris Commercial
products. Production at Ford’s Dagenham plant got off to a slow start, but picked up as the local economy recovered so that by 1937 the plant produced 37,000 vehicles, an annual total that would not be exceeded until 1953. Most of the output of the Dagenham plant during the 1930s consisted of various editions of the Ford 8
, a successful model first built at Dagenham in 1932 which probably inspired the even more successful Morris 8
, first produced at Cowley
in 1935 by the UK market leader of the late 1930s.
Wartime production included large numbers of vans and trucks along with Bren gun carriers. The plant produced numerous 'special purpose' engines. Agricultural vehicles were also an important element: at one point the Fordson represented 95% of UK tractor production.
, Cortina
and (until production of Ford’s smaller saloons transferred to Halewood
), the Anglia
. The 1950s was a decade of expansion: a £75 million plant redevelopment completed in 1959 increased floor space by 50% and doubled production capacity. This went hand in had with the concentration in-house of car body assembly, following the acquisition in 1953 of the company's principal UK body supplier, Briggs Motor Bodies.
The 1960s saw several European auto-makers, including Ford of Britain
, investing in new assembly plants on Greenfield sites. The Dagenham plant was by 1970 becoming one of the Europe’s older mass-production car plants. In 1970, production of the Ford Escort began at Saarlouis
in West Germany
. By this time the UK auto-industry was gaining a reputation for poor industrial relations, with a particularly lengthy strike leading to a three month shut-down at the Dagenham plant at the start of the summer of 1971. This savaged availability of the Ford Cortina Mk III during its crucial first year. By the time the Ford Cortina Mk IV was introduced to UK customers, the cars inherited several Ford UK engines but were, in other respects, virtually identical to those branded in lhd European markets as Ford Taunus
models.
The decision to offer the same models in the UK as in the rest of Europe reduced the company’s vulnerability to further industrial disruption at Dagenham, but it also made cost comparisons between the company’s various European plants increasingly stark. During the closing decade of the twentieth century UK government policy and the country’s status as a major oil producer left the UK with a currency which by several conventional criteria was significantly overvalued against the German Mark
and the currencies that tracked it
. This tended to exacerbate any cost penalties arising from relative inefficiencies in the Dagenham plant’s operation, and new model investment decisions during the 1990s tended to favour mainland Europe. For instance, the Sierra
for the European market had its right-hand drive models made at Dagenham and the left-hand drive models in Belgium
; but in 1990 all Sierra production was concentrated in Belgium, leaving the Fiesta as the only model being built at Dagenham. The Sierra's successor, the Mondeo
(launched in early 1993), was also built in Belgium. However, Dagenham did become a two-model plant again in January 1996 when the Mazda 121
, built alongside the Fiesta as part as a venture with Mazda until its demise four years later.
, itself competing in an increasingly crowded market sector. The lead plant for Fiesta production was in Spain
, however. Faced with a cyclical downturn in car demand across Europe, Ford took the decision not to tool the Dagenham plant up for the replacement Fiesta due for launch in 2002, which was the year in which the company produced their last Dagenham built Ford Fiesta. Mindful of its image as a good corporate British citizen, the company stressed that the plant engine building capacity would now be developed to "help the UK to become the producer of one in every four Ford engines the world over".
The site has also been the location of the Dagenham wind turbines
since 2004.
Dagenham
Dagenham is a large suburb in East London, forming the eastern part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and located east of Charing Cross. It was historically an agrarian village in the county of Essex and remained mostly undeveloped until 1921 when the London County Council began...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
operated by the Ford of Europe subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
. The plant opened in 1931 and has produced 10,980,368 cars and over 37,000,000 engines in its history.
Vehicle assembly ceased at the plant in 2002 but it continues as a major production site with the capacity to assemble 1.4 million engines a year. In 2008 the plant produced around 1,050,000 engines and was the largest producer of Ford diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
s globally. Employment at the plant peaked at around 40,000 workers in 1953, and the plant currently employs around 4,000 people. The plant covers around 475 acres and has received over £800 million of capital investment since the year 2000.
Origins to 1945
Planning of the Dagenham plant began in the early 1920s, a time when lorries were small and road networks little developed. In the UK bulk supplies were still delivered by water transport, so the Dagenham plant, like the Ford Trafford Park plantFord Trafford Park Factory
The Ford Trafford Park assembly plant was a car assembly plant established by the UK subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company. The plant was located at a recently established Industrial park called Trafford Park, beside the Manchester Ship Canal, a short distance to the west of Manchester...
which it would replace, needed good water access. Dagenham on the southern estuarial edge of Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
offered the prospect of a deep water port which would allow for bulk deliveries of coal and steel on a far larger scale than the barges of the Manchester Ship Canal
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...
could manage at the old plant. In 1924 Ford Motor Company purchased land in the Dagenham marshes for £167,700.
On 17 May 1929 Edsel Ford
Edsel Ford
Edsel Bryant Ford , son of Henry Ford, was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was president of Ford Motor Company from 1919 until his death in 1943.-Life and career:...
marked the start of construction on the site by cutting the first turf in the marshes. Construction on the site continued for 28 months and required approximately 22,000 concrete piles to be driven down through the clay of the marshland site in order adequately to support a factory that from the start was planned to incorporate its own steel foundry and coal fired power station.
At the time when the plant was planned, western governments were increasingly responding to economic depression with protectionist policies
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
. This was the context in which Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
’s policy of setting up relatively autonomous car-manufacturing businesses in principal overseas markets can be seen. The drive for self reliance implicit in including within the Dagenham plant its own steel foundry and power station nevertheless went beyond anything attempted by other European mass-production auto-makers such as Morris
Morris Motor Company
The Morris Motor Company was a British car manufacturing company. After the incorporation of the company into larger corporations, the Morris name remained in use as a marque until 1984 when British Leyland's Austin Rover Group decided to concentrate on the more popular Austin marque...
in England, Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...
in Germany or Citroën
Citroën
Citroën is a major French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group.Founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën , Citroën was the first mass-production car company outside the USA and pioneered the modern concept of creating a sales and services network that...
in France. Inspiration for Ford’s Dagenham plant came more directly from Ford’s own Rouge River plant on the edge of Detroit.
The first vehicle out of the Dagenham plant was a Ford AA light truck
Ford Model AA
Ford Model AA is a truck from Ford. As the Model T and TT became obsolete and needed to be replaced, Henry Ford began initial designs on the Model A and Model AA in 1926. Basic chassis layout was done rapidly and mechanical development was moved forward quickly. Body design and style was...
, produced in October 1931. However, the British economy was in a depressed condition at this time, and the surviving local market for light trucks was dominated by Morris Commercial
Morris Commercial Cars
Morris Commercial Cars Limited was a British manufacturer of commercial vehicles founded by William Morris, who was also the founder of the Morris Motor Company.-History:...
products. Production at Ford’s Dagenham plant got off to a slow start, but picked up as the local economy recovered so that by 1937 the plant produced 37,000 vehicles, an annual total that would not be exceeded until 1953. Most of the output of the Dagenham plant during the 1930s consisted of various editions of the Ford 8
Ford Model Y
The Model Y is the first Ford specifically designed for markets outside the United States of America, replacing the Model A in Europe. The car was powered by a 933 cc, 8 hp Ford Sidevalve engine, and was in production in England from 1932 until September 1937, in France from 1932 to 1934...
, a successful model first built at Dagenham in 1932 which probably inspired the even more successful Morris 8
Morris Eight
The Morris Eight was a small car inspired by the sales popularity of the similarly shaped Ford Model Y. The success of the car enabled Morris to regain its position as Britain's largest motor manufacturer.-Morris Eight Series I:...
, first produced at Cowley
Cowley, Oxford
Cowley in Oxford, England, is a residential and industrial area that forms a small conurbation within greater Oxford. Cowley's neighbours are central Oxford to the northwest, Rose Hill and Blackbird Leys to the south, New Headington to the north and the villages of Horspath and Garsington across...
in 1935 by the UK market leader of the late 1930s.
Wartime production included large numbers of vans and trucks along with Bren gun carriers. The plant produced numerous 'special purpose' engines. Agricultural vehicles were also an important element: at one point the Fordson represented 95% of UK tractor production.
1945 to 2000
After the Second World War Ford’s UK operation set the pace for the UK auto-industry and Dagenham products included models such as the ZephyrFord Zephyr
The Ford Zephyr was a car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United Kingdom. Between 1950 and 1972, it was sold as a more powerful six-cylinder saloon to complement the four-cylinder Ford Consul: from 1962 the Zephyr itself was offered in both four- and six-cylinder versions.The Zephyr...
, Cortina
Ford Cortina
As the 1960s dawned, BMC were revelling in the success of their new Mini – the first successful true minicar to be built in Britain in the postwar era...
and (until production of Ford’s smaller saloons transferred to Halewood
Halewood Body & Assembly
Halewood Body & Assembly is a Jaguar Land Rover production facility based in Halewood, Merseyside, England.Halewood was originally opened by the Ford Motor Company on 2 October 1963 to build the then small-saloon sized Ford Anglia...
), the Anglia
Ford Anglia
The 1949 model, code E494A, was a makeover of the previous model with a rather more 1940s style front-end, including the sloped, twin-lobed radiator grille. Again it was a very spartan vehicle and in 1948 was Britain's lowest priced four wheel car....
. The 1950s was a decade of expansion: a £75 million plant redevelopment completed in 1959 increased floor space by 50% and doubled production capacity. This went hand in had with the concentration in-house of car body assembly, following the acquisition in 1953 of the company's principal UK body supplier, Briggs Motor Bodies.
The 1960s saw several European auto-makers, including Ford of Britain
Ford of Britain
Ford of Britain is a British wholly owned subsidiary of Ford of Europe, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Its business started in 1909 and has its registered office in Brentwood, Essex...
, investing in new assembly plants on Greenfield sites. The Dagenham plant was by 1970 becoming one of the Europe’s older mass-production car plants. In 1970, production of the Ford Escort began at Saarlouis
Saarlouis Body & Assembly
The Ford Saarlouis body and assembly plant is a major car plant located on the western edge of Saarlouis in the German Saarland. It belongs to Ford of Germany, the German subsidiary of the American automaker Ford Motor Company.-Origins:...
in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. By this time the UK auto-industry was gaining a reputation for poor industrial relations, with a particularly lengthy strike leading to a three month shut-down at the Dagenham plant at the start of the summer of 1971. This savaged availability of the Ford Cortina Mk III during its crucial first year. By the time the Ford Cortina Mk IV was introduced to UK customers, the cars inherited several Ford UK engines but were, in other respects, virtually identical to those branded in lhd European markets as Ford Taunus
Ford Taunus
The Ford Taunus is a family car sold by Ford in Germany and other countries. Models from 1970 onward were similar to the Ford Cortina in the United Kingdom...
models.
The decision to offer the same models in the UK as in the rest of Europe reduced the company’s vulnerability to further industrial disruption at Dagenham, but it also made cost comparisons between the company’s various European plants increasingly stark. During the closing decade of the twentieth century UK government policy and the country’s status as a major oil producer left the UK with a currency which by several conventional criteria was significantly overvalued against the German Mark
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
and the currencies that tracked it
European Currency Unit
The European Currency Unit was a basket of the currencies of the European Community member states, used as the unit of account of the European Community before being replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999, at parity. The ECU itself replaced the European Unit of Account, also at parity, on 13...
. This tended to exacerbate any cost penalties arising from relative inefficiencies in the Dagenham plant’s operation, and new model investment decisions during the 1990s tended to favour mainland Europe. For instance, the Sierra
Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra is a large family car that was built by Ford Europe from 1982 until 1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément. The code used during development was "Project Toni"....
for the European market had its right-hand drive models made at Dagenham and the left-hand drive models in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
; but in 1990 all Sierra production was concentrated in Belgium, leaving the Fiesta as the only model being built at Dagenham. The Sierra's successor, the Mondeo
Ford Mondeo
The Mondeo was launched on 8 January 1993, and sales began on 22 March 1993. Available as a four-door saloon, a five-door hatchback, and a five-door estate, all models for the European market were produced at Ford's plant in the Belgian city of Genk...
(launched in early 1993), was also built in Belgium. However, Dagenham did become a two-model plant again in January 1996 when the Mazda 121
Mazda 121
The Mazda 121 name has been used on a variety of Mazda automobiles for various export markets from 1975 until 2002:* 1975–1981 — Piston engined variants of the second generation Mazda Cosmo sports car...
, built alongside the Fiesta as part as a venture with Mazda until its demise four years later.
21st century
By 2000 the only Ford produced at Dagenham was the FiestaFord Fiesta
The Ford Fiesta is a front wheel drive supermini/subcompact manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company and built in Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, China, India, Thailand and South Africa...
, itself competing in an increasingly crowded market sector. The lead plant for Fiesta production was in Spain
Ford Valencia Plant
The Ford Valencia assembly plant is a major car assembly plant located at Almussafes on the southern edge of the Valencia conurbation.-Origins:In 1973 the Ford Motor Company headed by Henry Ford II purchased of orchard on the edge of Valencia. Exactly 1,000 days later, on 18 October 1976, the...
, however. Faced with a cyclical downturn in car demand across Europe, Ford took the decision not to tool the Dagenham plant up for the replacement Fiesta due for launch in 2002, which was the year in which the company produced their last Dagenham built Ford Fiesta. Mindful of its image as a good corporate British citizen, the company stressed that the plant engine building capacity would now be developed to "help the UK to become the producer of one in every four Ford engines the world over".
The site has also been the location of the Dagenham wind turbines
Dagenham wind turbines
The Dagenham wind turbines are two 85 m high Enercon E-70 wind turbines located on the Dagenham estate of the Ford Motor Company in east London, England. The turbines were completed in April 2004...
since 2004.