Editing Rolls-Royce Merlin (section)

===Manchester===
{{Main|Ford Trafford Park Factory}}

The [[Ford of Britain|Ford Motor Company]] was asked to produce Merlins at [[Trafford Park]], [[Stretford]], near [[Manchester]], and building work on a new factory was started in May 1940 on a {{convert|118|acre|ha|adj=on}} site. Built with two distinct sections to minimise potential bomb damage, it was completed in May 1941 and bombed in the same month.{{#tag:ref|The new factory was bombed by the Luftwaffe in May 1941.<ref name=Nicholls103/>|group=nb}} At first, the factory had difficulty in attracting suitable labour, and large numbers of women, youths and untrained men had to be taken on. Despite this, the first Merlin engine came off the production line one month later and it was building the engine at a rate of 200 per week by 1943,<ref name=Nicholls103>Nicholls 1996, p. 103.</ref> at which point the joint factories were producing 18,000 Merlins per year.<ref name= "Lumsden p. 201"/> In his autobiography ''Not much of an Engineer'', Sir Stanley Hooker states: "...&nbsp;once the great Ford factory at Manchester started production, Merlins came out like shelling peas&nbsp;...".<ref>Hooker 1984, pp. 58–59.</ref>

Some 17,316 people worked at the Trafford Park plant, including 7,260 women and two resident doctors and nurses.<ref name=Nicholls103/> Merlin production started to run down in August 1945, and finally ceased on 23 March 1946.<ref>Nicholls 1996, p. 105.</ref>

Total Merlin production at Trafford Park was 30,428.<ref name="Gunston2006190"/>