Henry Royce, an electrical engineer who had built his first car in Manchester, met the motoring enthusiast and car dealer Charles Rolls at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on 4 May 1904. Rolls agreed to sell all the cars Royce could make, and Rolls-Royce Limited was incorporated in March 1906.
The 40/50 horsepower model of 1906, later known as the Silver Ghost, established the company’s reputation for engineering, silence and reliability; more than 6,000 were built before the Phantom replaced it in 1925. Production moved from Manchester to a new factory in Derby in 1908, and in 1931 Rolls-Royce bought the failed Bentley company. After the Second World War car production moved to Crewe, where the 1949 Silver Dawn was the first Rolls-Royce with a factory-built body.
The aero-engine business went into receivership in 1971, and the car business was split off as Rolls-Royce Motors in 1973, later owned by Vickers from 1980. In 1998 Volkswagen bought the Crewe business, while BMW secured the Rolls-Royce name, and since 2003 Rolls-Royce Motor Cars have been built at a new factory at Goodwood in West Sussex.
