Park Ward
Coordinates: 51°31′44″N 0°14′24″W / 51.5290117°N 0.2400825°W Park Ward was a British coachbuilder founded in 1919 which operated from Willesden in North London. In the 1930s backed by Rolls-Royce Limited it made technical advances which enabled the building of all-steel bodies to Rolls-Royce's high standards. Bought by Rolls-Royce in 1939 it disappeared into the Rolls-Royce group in 1961 as a part of Mulliner-Park Ward.
Park Ward was founded in 1919 by William MacDonald Park and Charles Ward, they had worked together at F.W. Berwick Limited the makers of Sizaire-Berwick cars. After producing bodies for a variety of cars in the early 1920s Park Ward became particularly associated with W O Bentley's new business manufacturing their chassis nearby at Cricklewood. In 1922 they were asked by Rolls-Royce to take part in a scheme to make standard bodies for their small Twenty model but the project was abandoned though they did build bespoke bodies for Rolls-Royce customers exhibiting a 40-50 model at the British Empire exhibition in 1924. From the mid-1920s the company started to concentrate on Bentley and Rolls-Royce models.
After the Rolls-Royce take over of Bentley in 1931 Rolls-Royce took a stake in Park Ward. Beginning in 1933 when they obtained patents Park Ward developed a technically interesting all-steel saloon in conjunction with Rolls-Royce and from 1936 offered it on the 4¼-litre Bentley chassis. These bodies were supported by Silentbloc rubber bushes to reduce road-shock engine-noise and vibration. The cars were produced in small batches giving quite noticeable economies in manufacture with a consequent reduction in selling price. By 1937 as many as ten cars a week were passing through Park Ward's works and in 1939 Rolls-Royce completed its acquisition of the business. After World War II, Park Ward continued to produce special coachwork and the all-steel technology was used by Rolls-Royce to produce a standard body range on its cars starting with the Bentley Mark VI. Twenty years later Park Ward was merged with H. J. Mulliner & Co. in 1961 to form Mulliner Park Ward. Mulliner Park Ward operations were centralized in the former Park Ward factory in Willesden.
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