1921 Ford Model T Centre door sedan
Ford Motors had been selling in Britain since 1903, imported from America. By the end of the 20th century’s first decade the Ford UK franchise-holder on [/color][/font][/size]
London ’s Shaftesbury Avenue was selling several hundred cars a year, prompting Henry Ford’s decision to build his first factory outside the USA
The chosen site suitably enough was a disused coachworks located on the world’s first industrial estate, Trafford Park
Manchester . This was chosen partly because the Manchester Ship Canal which had opened in
1894[
made shipping parts there easy – the plant initially was an assembly works for American-made components.
On October 23 1911 the first Ford car made in Britain was produced on the site, a Model T (a vehicle which had made its world debut at Olympia in