Park Ward

Park Ward was founded in 1919 by William MacDonald Park and Charles Ward, who had worked together at F. W. Berwick, makers of the Sizaire-Berwick. They built their first Rolls-Royce body in 1920, and became particularly associated with W. O. Bentley’s new company, which built its chassis nearby at Cricklewood. From the mid-1920s Park Ward concentrated on Bentley and Rolls-Royce, and by 1930 it did 90 per cent of its work for Rolls-Royce.

After Rolls-Royce took over Bentley in 1931 it took a stake in Park Ward. From 1933, with patents, the firm developed a technically interesting all-steel saloon with Rolls-Royce, offered from 1936 on the 4¼-litre Bentley chassis, with Silentbloc rubber bushes to reduce noise and vibration. By 1937 ten cars a week were passing through the works, and in 1939 Rolls-Royce completed its acquisition. In the late 1950s the capacity released by Rolls-Royce’s move to manufactured steel bodies was used to make the Alvis TD21.

In 1961 Park Ward merged with H. J. Mulliner to form Mulliner Park Ward, centred on the Willesden factory. Park Ward also built the body of the Bugatti Royale known as the Foster car, or Limousine Park-Ward.