Crewe: from Spitfires to Bentleys
CREWE has been Bentley’s home for more than three quarters of the firm’s life, and the factory site has an interesting history, to say the least.
When the UK Government needed to build more aircraft ahead of World War Two, a patch of farmland outside Crewe was selected. The area had excellent road and rail links, while its nondescript location made it a difficult place for the Luftwaffe to bomb. Work to build Rolls-Royce Crewe began in 1938, with the site producing 25,000 Merlin engines to be installed in a number of different aircraft, like the Supermarine Spitfire. These engines came at the cost of 17 workers’ lives, killed in a bombing raid in 1940.
After the war, Rolls-Royce – which had purchased Bentley in 1931 – concentrated aero engine production in Derby, and began using Crewe to build cars, starting with the Bentley Mark VI in 1946. This went unchanged until 1997, when parent company Vickers decided to sell its luxury car brands. The sales process ended with VW Group owning the Bentley name, as well as all Rolls-Royce vehicle designs, model name plates and facilities, while BMW purchased the Rolls-Royce brand name and identity.
BMW moved Rolls production to a new plant in Goodwood, West Sussex, but Bentley production has remained at Crewe for the whole time.
we used to be involved in that, so it almost felt as if it was tradition that you came to work here.”
Julia’s sister, Amanda, joined Bentley two decades ago on a part-time basis but ended up as a full-time member of staff, and now acts as showroom and customer co-ordinator at CW1 House.
Amanda had been a legal secretary before joining Bentley, but left that job to give birth to her son, Dan Butler – who just happens to be the third Bentley-employed member of the family we meet. Dan was obsessed with cars from a young age, and when he wasn’t sure whether to go to university, Julia pointed out an apprenticeship opportunity Bentley was offering. Dan seized the chance, and now works for the company as a technical manager responsible for pedestrian protection.
“I think it was a little bit of knowing my family was at Bentley,” Dan says. “Knowing the links to the company and being made aware of the opportunities that were
available, but also being, quite frankly, a petrolhead from about three-years-old!” That family feeling extends beyond Dan, Amanda and others, though, with Bentley as a whole having a feeling of closeness.
“It’s a big community at the end of the day – it doesn’t really feel like a business,” Dan says. “I’ve visited bigger VW Group brands, such as Audi, where they have 40,000 people in their engineering facilities. We only have 1,500, but you can put faces to each of those people, so it becomes more of a community than a workplace.”
But while the family are all united in their passion for Bentley, they don’t agree on everything. When we asked each of them what they felt the future direction of the company should be, Julia immediately made the case for
electric cars. “I think the electric car has to be the future,” she explained. “We should continue to develop really high-quality cars, keep delivering what customers need, and make sure our models reflect what that need is.”
Dan didn’t share this view, though. “I’m personally not as erring towards the EV side,” he said. “I’m more of an old school petrolhead, so I would like to see us retain some level of that, even if it’s in bespoke models or one-offs – anything that gives us that Bentley identity.
“That prestige needs to stay within the business, even if it’s just as a halo product we produce, while also adhering to the markets and people’s needs.”
Dan and Julia continued debating what future direction Bentley should take and, while they certainly didn’t agree on everything, their passion and care for the firm was unquestionable, and that helps explain why Bentley is as strong today as it has ever been; and perhaps even stronger. Here’s to another 100 years of that.