Rolls-Royce (1945-1980): books - history and technology

Original Rolls-Royce and Bentley 1946-65 - The Restorer's Guide to the 'standard' Saloons and Mainstream Coachbuilt Derivatives

Between 1945 and 1965, the Rolls-Royce factory in Crewe produced remarkable motor cars. The Mark VI Bentley, the first wholly built by Rolls-Royce, debuted with a Pressed Steel body, while custom-built cars remained an option.
In 1949, the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn followed, joined by its Bentley counterpart with "big boot" bodies in 1952, transitioning the Mark VI into the R-type.

The 120mph Continental marked the zenith of Bentley motoring. The Silver Cloud and Bentley S-series, nearly identical, arrived in 1955 with a 4.9-liter engine, later upgraded to a 6.2-liter V8 from 1959. Coachbuilt S-series Continentals continued as bespoke grand tourers alongside them.

"Original Rolls-Royce & Bentley 1946-65" serves as a vital companion to these elegant cars, known for their mechanical durability and unmatched construction quality. The book aims to document how these models evolved over time through words and color photographs, detailing numerous specification changes driven by Rolls-Royce's policy of continuous refinement.
With over 250 commissioned color photographs, it offers a thorough reference for owners, restorers, buyers, and enthusiasts, drawing from factory records, parts lists, and catalogues.

Rolls-Royce : The Classic Elegance

Written by Lawrence Dalton, a life long motor enthusiast, "Rolls-Royce: The Classic Elegance" has been out of print for some years. Now in this second edition, authority Bernard L. King has radically revised, with thousands of changes and additions, all the captions and the production details of the Silver Wraith, Phantom IV and Phantom V, plus the coachbuilt Silver Dawns, Silver Cloud I, II and III chassis, utilising his database that encompasses all Bentley and Rolls-Royce motor cars produced up until 1965.

For the first time, the data is presented in a standardised format and will prove invaluable to the enthusiast who wants to identify the body on a particular chassis along with its date of completion, first owner etc.
Other book references for each coachbuilt car are added for the first time and this will be immensely useful for tracing further photographs and information.

Over five hundred illustrations, mostly black and white photographs plus a 16 page colour section, cover practically every different body design mounted on post-war Rolls-Royce up to 1986 and include photographs of interiors and some coachbuilders drawings.

Rolls Royce Motors - The Crewe Years (Nostalgia Road)

Having constructed a factory at Pym's Lane in Crewe in 1938 in which to build its aero engines, Rolls-Royce immediately became synonymous with the Cheshire town. It was there that Merlin and Griffon engines, destined for aeroplanes as famous as the Hurricane, Spitfire and Lancaster were assembled in their thousands. After WW2, Crewe became the home of Rolls-Royce Motors, which included Bentley as the production of these fine vehicles had been transferred from Derby.
Superb quality and attention to detail are the hallmarks of these globally celebrated cars.

This book not only details the five generations of Rolls-Royces and Bentleys built at Crewe, including the Silver Cloud and Silver Shadow, but also chronicles the company history, and the affair which led to the two marques being separated in 2003 when Rolls-Royce was acquired by BMW and moved to Goodwood, and Bentley, remaining at Crewe, was sold to Volkswagen.

Making Cars at Crewe

On 30 August 2002, the last Crewe-built Rolls-Royce rolled off the production line, bringing the era of Crewe-built Rolls-Royces to an end.
Peter Ollerhead, an ex-Rolls-Royce employee, has spent years researching the history of the company in Crewe, from 1938 to 1998, focusing on the endeavours and the experiences of its employees: this is a book about people.

The detailed text, illustrated with over 80 photographs, explains how the initial establishment of a Merlin aero engine factory was thwarted by the problems of building on a greenfield site, where the early days of skill shortages, a chronic need for housing and a strike were followed by a bombing raid in 1940, in which seventeen employees were killed.
The arrival of car production just after the Second World War is fully covered, as are the other enterprises that helped to keep the company afloat, from War Department power units to hip joints for the NHS.

Despite a troubled history - with two major fires, bankruptcy and large-scale redundancies - Rolls-Royce was Crewe's largest employer for many years, produced the world's best luxury cars, and influenced and shaped the town as no other company has done.
This book is a fitting tribute to the generations of workers who made it all possible.

Crewe's Rolls-Royce Factory - From Old Photographs

The collection of images in this book portray the presence of Rolls-Royce in Crewe from the heady days just prior to the Second World War. It was decided then that a factory to manufacture desperately needed Merlin aero engines to power Spitfires and Hurricanes in the defence of these islands would be erected in the town.
Images of both production and destruction chart the progress of the struggle with fascism until peace was won, allowing normal life to begin again. It was then that RR made the decision to turn the Pym's Lane factory away from armaments and concentrate all car production in the town, so the rest of the images show the many differing marques of the cars that bore the iconic RR logo along with the winged 'B' of the various Bentley models that were manufactured in south Cheshire.

Many of the photographs that illustrate the production methods and machines in this volume have not been available to the general public, making it an interesting and informative read.
The book closes with a long chapter concerned with the people and activities associated with the proud history of Bentley and Rolls-Royce in Crewe until the sad day when the marques divided leaving Bentley as the sole yet worthy owner of the Pym's Lane factory.