Ford Dagenham
Ford Dagenham Plant and Terminal
Built	1931
Location	Dagenham, United Kingdom
Coordinate	51°30′55″N 0°09′11″E / 51.515213°N 0.153114°E / 51.515213; 0.153114Coordinates: 51°30′55″N 0°09′11″E / 51.515213°N 0.153114°E / 51.515213; 0.153114
Industry	Automotive
Products	Duratorq engine
Employees	Approximately 4,000
Area	475 acres (192 ha)

Ford Dagenham is a major automotive factory located in Dagenham, United Kingdom operated by the Ford of Europe subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. The plant opened in 1931 and has produced 10,980,368 cars and over 37,000,000 engines in its history.^[1][2]

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.^[2] In 2008 the plant produced around 1,050,000 engines and was the largest producer of Ford diesel engines globally.^[2] Employment at the plant peaked at around 40,000 workers in 1953, and it currently employs around 4,000 people.^[2] The plant covers around 475 acres and has received over £800 million of capital investment since the year 2000.^[2]

History[link]

Origins to 1945[link]

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 plant 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.^[3]

On 17 May 1929 Edsel Ford marked the start of construction on the site by cutting the first turf in the marshes.^[3] 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.^[1][3]

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.^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[4] The plant produced numerous 'special purpose' engines.^[4] Agricultural vehicles were also an important element: at one point the Fordson represented 95% of UK tractor production.^[4]

1945 to 2000[link]

Ford Dagenham in 1973, displaying what was at the time the largest neon sign in Europe

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 Zephyr, Cortina and (until production of Ford’s smaller saloons transferred to Halewood), the Anglia.^[1] The 1950s was a decade of expansion: a £75 million plant redevelopment completed in 1959 increased floor space by 50% and doubled production capacity.^[4] 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.^[4]

The 1960s saw several European auto-makers, including Ford of Britain, investing in new assembly plants on Greenfield sites.^{[4][citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} By this time the UK auto-industry was gaining a reputation for poor industrial relations,^[1] 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[5]

21st century[link]

By 2000 the only Ford produced at Dagenham was the Fiesta, itself competing in an increasingly crowded market sector.^[6] 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".^[1]

The site has also been the location of the Dagenham wind turbines since 2004.

See also[link]

• Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968

References[link]

v t e Ford Motor Company assembly plants Ford Motor Company Europe Current Cologne Body & Assembly Genk Body & Assembly Ford Otosan Assembly Ford Romania Saarlouis Body & Assembly Southampton Body & Assembly Valencia Body & Assembly Former Cork Assembly Dagenham Assembly1 North America Current AutoAlliance International Blue Diamond Truck Chicago Assembly Cuautitlán Assembly Dearborn Truck Ford River Rouge Complex Hermosillo Stamping & Assembly Kansas City Assembly Kentucky Truck Assembly Louisville Assembly Plant Michigan Assembly Plant Oakville Assembly Ohio Assembly Wayne Stamping & Assembly Former Atlanta Assembly Vintage Atlanta Plant Chester Assembly Edgewater Assembly Edison Assembly Long Beach Assembly Los Angeles Assembly Lorain Assembly Norfolk Assembly Omaha Assembly Ontario Truck Ford Richmond Plant San Jose Assembly Plant St. Louis Assembly Plant St. Thomas Assembly Twin Cities Assembly Plant Wixom Assembly Plant Other Broadmeadows Assembly (Australia) Ford Motor Company Philippines Valencia Assembly (Venezuela) 1Engine production continues at plant

v t e Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Manufacturing in the United Kingdom Economy of the United Kingdom Companies and marques Commercial vehicle producers Alexander Dennis Plaxton Dennis Eagle Ford of Britain Southampton Body & Assembly GM Manufacturing Luton JCB Leyland Trucks London Taxis International Optare Smith Electric Vehicles Stevens Vehicles Wrightbus Motorsport Arena Motorsport Carlin Caterham F1 Chevron Cars Cosworth Engine Developments Ltd. Force India Ford World Rally Team Fortec Hewland Ilmor Engineering Lister Cars Lola Cars Lotus F1 Marussia F1 McLaren Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains Mercedes GP M-Sport Munchi's Ford World Rally Team Prodrive Red Bull Racing Ricardo RML Group Team Dynamics Triple Eight Race Engineering Van Diemen Williams F1 Wirth Research Xtrac Zytek Motorsport Passenger car producers Ariel Ascari Aston Martin Bentley Crewe plant Briggs Bristol Caparo Caterham Defunct producers Electric Car Corporation Fenix Ford of Britain Bridgend Engine Dagenham plant Dunton Technical Centre Ginetta Honda UK Jaguar Land Rover Jaguar Land Rover Daimler Castle Bromwich plant Gaydon Centre Halewood plant Solihull plant Whitley Engineering Centre Lagonda Lightning Lotus McLaren MG Longbridge plant Mini Plant Oxford Morgan Nissan UK Noble Rolls-Royce Goodwood plant Spyker Toyota UK TVR Vauxhall Ellesmere Port Westfield Kit cars Caterham GKD GTM JBA Motors Marc Nordon Racing Onyx Quantum Sylva Ultima Sports Westfield Retail and services The AA Autoglass Auto Windscreens Halfords Inchcape Kwik-Fit Lex Vehicle Leasing Lookers Pendragon RAC Suppliers and consultancies Caparo Vehicle Technologies Cosworth Cummins UK GKN Johnson Matthey Lotus Engineering MIRA Perkins Engines Pilkington Quaife Ricardo Tata Steel Europe Tomkins Transport Research Laboratory Unipart WMG Zytek Government and regulatory bodies Department for Transport Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency Driving Standards Agency Vehicle Certification Agency Vehicle and Operator Services Agency Other Automobile designers Automobile magazines Autocar Auto Express Car Magazine Evo Top Gear What Car? IAM Motorcycle manufacturers Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Top Gear Category

Coordinates: 51°32′23″N 0°08′32″E / 51.5397°N 0.1422°E / 51.5397; 0.1422

Dagenham
The parish church formed the heart of the former village
Dagenham  Dagenham shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ485845
- Charing Cross	12 mi (19 km)  W
London borough	Barking & Dagenham
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DAGENHAM
Postcode district	RM8, RM9, RM10
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Dagenham and Rainham
London Assembly	City and East
List of places: UK • England • London

Dagenham is a large suburb in East London, forming the eastern part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and located 12 miles (19.3 km) 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 construction of the large Becontree estate. The population of the area significantly increased during the 20th century, with the parish of Dagenham becoming an urban district in 1926 and a municipal borough in 1938. It has formed part of Greater London since 1965 and is a predominantly residential area, with some areas of declining industrial activity, including the Ford Dagenham plant. The population is set to rise as the southern part of Dagenham, adjacent to the River Thames, forms part of the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area.

History[link]

Toponomy[link]

Dagenham first appeared in a document (as Dæccanhaam) in a charter of Barking Abbey dating from 686 AD. The name almost certainly originated with a small farmstead, the "ham" or farm of a man called Daecca, as Dæccan hamm in Old English means home of a man called Dæcca.^[1]

Economic development[link]

Ford Dagenham Terminal

In 1931 the Ford Motor Company relocated from Trafford Park in Stretford, to a plant in Dagenham, which was already the location of supplier Briggs Motor Bodies. A 500 acre (2 km²) riverside site was developed to become Europe's largest car plant, a vast vertically integrated site with its own blast furnaces and power station, importing iron ore and exporting finished vehicles. By the 1950s Ford had taken over Briggs at Dagenham and its other sites at Doncaster, Southampton, Croydon and Romford. At its peak the Dagenham plant had 4 million square feet (371600 m²) of floor space and employed 40,000.^[2] On February 20, 2002, full production was discontinued due to overcapacity in Europe and the relative difficulty of upgrading the 60 year old site compared with other European sites such as Almussafes, Valencia, Spain and Cologne. Other factors leading to the closure of the Auto-assembly line were the need of the site for the new Diesel Centre of Excellence, which produces half of Ford's Diesel Engines worldwide and the UK employment laws when compared to Spanish, German and Belgian laws. In 2005 Cummins went into a joint venture and offered $15 million (US) to reinstate the factory. Ford and Cummins offered a good redundancy package, billed as one of the best in UK manufacturing. It is the location of the Dagenham wind turbines.^[3] Some 4,000 people now work at the Ford plant.^[4] The movie Made in Dagenham (2010) is a dramatisation of the 1968 Ford sewing machinists strike at the plant, where female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination and the desire for equal pay.

Sterling Ltd who were famous for manufacturing British Army weapons and Jaguar car parts were also based in Dagenham until they went bankrupt in 1988. Other industrial names once known world wide were Ever Ready, whose batteries could be found in shops throughout the Commonwealth, Bergers Paint and the chemical firm of May and Baker who in 1935 revolutionized the production of antibiotics with their synthetic sulfa-drug known as M&B 693. The May & Baker plant, now owned and run by Sanofi-Aventis, occupies a 108 acre site in Rainham Road South, near Dagenham East station but will be abandoned in 2013 when the site closes. The council has not yet decided how to use the vacant site. Their sports and social club has large grounds between Eastbrookend Country Park and the railway.

Local government[link]

Dagenham was an ancient, and later civil, parish in the Becontree hundred of Essex.^[5] The Metropolitan Police District was extended to include Dagenham in 1840. The parish formed part of the Romford Rural District from 1894.^[6][7] The expansion of the Greater London conurbation into the area caused the review of local government structures and it was suggested in 1920 that the Dagenham parish should be abolished and its area divided between Ilford Urban District and Barking Town Urban District.^[8] Separately, the London County Council proposed that its area of responsibility should be expanded beyond the County of London to cover the area.^[9] Instead, in 1926 the Dagenham parish was removed from the Romford Rural District and became an urban district.^[6] In 1938, in further recognition of its development, Dagenham became a municipal borough.^[10] In 1965 the Municipal Borough of Dagenham was abolished and its former area became part of the London Borough of Barking,^[11] which is now known as Barking and Dagenham.^[12]

Market gardens to suburban estate[link]

Dagenham parish church

In 1205 Dagenham was large enough to have a chaplain and the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul was probably built at around that time.^[13] In 1854, a station was opened on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway in the south of Dagenham, near the Thames, at Dagenham Dock. In 1885 a new direct route from Barking to Pitsea, via Upminster, was built with a new station opened just north of the village. Dagenham was still an undeveloped village, when building of the vast Becontree estate by the London County Council began in the early 1920s.^[14] The building of the enormous council estate, which also spread into the neighbouring parishes of Ilford and Barking,^[8] caused a rapid increase in population.^[15] In 1932 the electrified District Line of the London Underground was extended to Upminster through Dagenham with stations opened as Dagenham and Heathway and today called Dagenham East and Dagenham Heathway.^[16] Dagenham East was the location of the Dagenham East rail crash in 1958.^[17] Services on the London Tilbury & Southend line at Dagenham East were withdrawn in 1962.

Governance[link]

Dagenham is part of the Dagenham and Rainham parliamentary constituency and the London Assembly constituency of City and East.

Geography[link]

River Beam in the south of Dagenham

Dagenham Dock, to the south of Dagenham and adjacent to the River Thames, was once a large coaling port. The area now forms part of the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. Major brownfield housing developments are forecast to increase the population by tens of thousands of people. The Roundhouse public house on the junction of Porters Avenue and Lodge Avenue became East London's premier rock music venue between 1969 and 1975. Incorporating the "Village Blues Club", some notable bands who performed at the pub were Jethro Tull, Supertramp, Queen, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Status Quo, and Led Zeppelin (on 5 April 1969).

Demography[link]

Dagenham is still predominantly a white working class area.^[18] It is awkward to give the population of Dagenham on its own, since it has been merged with Barking on the 1st April 1965, when the Greater London Council (GLC) was formed. The results of the last Census in 2011 have not been released yet, but an estimate was given for 2009-2010 when the population of the combined borough was about 67% white British: while around 11% was classed as Asian/Asian British: with 10% being black/black British. Other nationalities made up the rest of residents. ^[19]

Transport[link]

There are London Underground services from Becontree, Dagenham East and Dagenham Heathway. C2c, currently operated by National Express, part of National Rail, run a service from Dagenham Dock.^[20] National Rail services also operate from nearby Chadwell Heath.

Dagenham Heathway is served by the following Transport for London contracted routes: London Buses routes 145,173,174,175 and 364. ^[21] Routes 5, 103, 128, 150, 173, 174, 175, 499 & N15 operate from Becontree Heath (once known as Beacontree Heath) or the nearby Civic Centre. Route 128 runs a 24 hour service: while the N15 runs through the night. ^[22]

Culture[link]

The southern Dagenham skyline includes structures of the Ford plant and wind turbines

Valence House is in Becontree Avenue. It is the only surviving of the five manor houses of Dagenham.^[23] Dating back to the 13th century it is sited in parkland and is partially surrounded by a moat. Valence House is the borough's local history museum and art gallery, displaying an impressive collection of artifacts and archives that tell the story of the lives of the people of Barking and Dagenham. The collection also includes portraits, family papers and other mementoes of the Fanshawe family, who occupied Parsloes Manor, since demolished, from the sixteenth century.^[24] The Fanshawe collection is "one of the best collections of gentry portraits in the country and is of international importance," according to Valence House.^[25] Among members of the Fanshawe family was the diplomat Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet, whose portrait is at Valence House. Nine successive members of the Fanshawe family served as Remembrancer to the Crown, following Henry Fanshawe's appointment to the position by Queen Elizabeth I in 1566. The appointment made possible the family's rise to prominence.

On the corner of Whalebone Lane and the Eastern Avenue, diagonally opposite the Moby-Dick public house, is the site of a Saxon moot hall. The adjoining fields were used during World War II by the Royal Artillery as an anti-aircraft battery before being converted into a Prisoner of War camp for Germans. Further south down Whalebone Lane on the corner of the High Road is the Tollgate pub. This stands on the site of the milestone which marked the ten mile (16 km) limit from the City of London and the turnpike toll-gate.

Sport[link]

Dagenham & Redbridge F.C., based in Dagenham, are currently playing in the Football League Two having been promoted as playoff-winners of League two after beating Rotherham United F.C. 3-2. Priot to this, they were the Nationwide Conference champions in the 2006/7 season. They play at the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Stadium, on Victoria Road.

Motorcycle speedway was staged at the greyhound stadium in Ripple Road in the mid to late 1930s. The club run events focussed on training but a team called the Dagenham Daggers did take part in local competitions. It is possible that the venture was operational as early as 1931 a meeting at Caxton (Cambridgeshire) was advertised as Caxton Speedway v Dagenham Speedway.

Dagenham's leading cricket club Goresbrook Cricket Club are based at the May & Baker Sports Club in Rainham Road South, in 2011 the club won the Essex County Cricket League for the first time in its history.

Dagenham has a King George's Field in memorial to King George V. The park, which has been in existence for over a century, was renamed in 1953 by Queen Elizabeth II. Dagenham also has many other parks such as Valence and Parsloes. Dagenham Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps, founded by John Johnson, were the first British Drum Corps and performed in America for the first time in 1983. They have recently reformed to perform for DCUK's 30th anniversary, and in 2010 are fielding a competitive corps for the first time in 22 years.

The town is also home to the Dagenham Girl Pipers, a bagpipe marching band founded in 1930 by the Rev Joseph Waddington Graves.

Notable people[link]

One of the longest-serving vicars of Dagenham was Rev. Abraham Blackborne, who died at age 82 in 1797, having served Dagenham for 58 years.^[26][27] Rev. Blackborne was the grandson of Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London and was married to Frances Fanshawe of Parsloes Manor in Dagenham. Rev. Blackborne and his wife are buried at Saint Anne's Church, Kew.^[28] The Blackborne family had long lived in Dagenham and Hornchurch.^[29] At the time of the Restoration, the entire manor of Cockermouth, to which the church was appended, was owned by Sir Thomas Darcy. Subsequently the manor was sold to the Blackborne family, and ultimately the heirs of William Blackborne Esq., High Sheriff of Essex, sold to the Bonynges^[30] after Blackborne suffered devastating financial losses in the South Sea Bubble.^[31] St Peter and Paul's Church in Dagenham was once the Parish Church of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.

Musician and comedian Dudley Moore was brought up in Dagenham,^[32] which was the home of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's famous comic alter-egos Pete and Dud.^[33]

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

v t e London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Districts Barking Becontree Becontree Heath Castle Green Chadwell Heath Creekmouth Dagenham Dagenham Dock Marks Gate Rush Green Attractions Barking Abbey Barking Market Eastbury Manor House (NT) Valence House Museum The Broadway Victoria Road Parks and open spaces Barking Park Central Park Eastbrookend Country Park Mayesbrook Park Parsloes Park Valence Park Constituencies Barking Dagenham and Rainham (part) Tube and rail stations Barking Becontree Dagenham Dock railway station Dagenham East Dagenham Heathway Upney Other topics People Public art Schools