had the bulk of its British operation swallowed by Ford. The following autumn The British Motor Corporation acquired Fisher & Ludlow. Fisher & Ludlow supplied Standard-Triumph who were then obliged to take control of the relatively small Mulliners but that took a few more years to develop and Mulliners was to close at the end of 1960. Pressed Steel stood alone as the only remaining independent supplier of mass-produced car bodies in Britain. In December 1953 Pressed Steel Company Limited was able to advertise: "The largest press shops in Europe with over 350 power presses working with pressures up to 1000 tons . . . a factory area at Cowley alone more than half the size of Hyde Park . . . Here, indeed, with its 12,000 and more workers, is one of Britain's greatest industrial enterprises." Factories: Cowley, Oxford. Theale, Berkshire. Linwood, Scotland.Head Office: CowleyLondon Office: Sceptre House, 169 Regent Street W1. Manufacturers of bodywork and pressings for many of the most famous names in the British motor-car industry, including Austin, Daimler, Hillman, Humber, Jaguar, Lanchester, Morris, Morris Commercial, MG, Riley, Rover, Singer, Wolseley. The largest body manufacturers in Britain and pioneers in Britain of pressed steel bodywork and unitary construction in quantity. Manufacturer of Prestcold refrigerators, steel railway wagons, agricultural implements and pressings of all types. Names to which pressings were supplied not included in the above list include Rolls-Royce and Bentley, Alfa Romeo, Volvo, Vauxhall. Swindon, Linwood II In 1956 they opened a new plant in Swindon to provide extra capacity, and in 1961 they opened their Linwood, Scotland plant alongside the new Rootes Linwood plant to provide bodies for the new Hillman Imp being produced there. By the end of the 20th century the Linwood site had been completely cleared. It is now partly occupied by a cinema complex. Tooling Pressed Steel was a major manufacturer of press tooling for Morris, Hillman, Rover and Rolls-Royce and car companies across the world including Vauxhall, Alfa Romeo etc. Research and development The R&D function, which was set up at the Cowley site in the early 1960s, and later transferred to their development site at Gaydon [1980], was a centre of excellence for the industry with many new processes including the development of electrophoretic painting (electrocoat), full mould casting, robotic welding and assembly, robotic adhesive and sealant application and robotic painting amongst many other firsts in the industry. In