Timeline 80 Years of Industrial History at Wide Lane, Southampton
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1939
Cunliffe Owen aircraft factory opens.
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1940
Cunliffe Owen is bombed several times.
11 September
52 people are killed in an air raid bombing.
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1943-45
Significant wartime aircraft are assembled at the site including the Seafire, Spitfire fighters and Avro Lancaster bombers.
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1947
Demand for wartime aircraft declines and Cunliffe Owen goes into ‘receivership’.
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1949
The site is bought by Briggs Motor Bodies supplying Ford.
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1953
Ford takes over and starts building truck bodies for Langley in Slough.
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1972
Transit production begins at Southampton. The first Transit is donated to the Mayor for a youth charity.
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1976
The millionth Transit is produced.
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1980s
The Ford workforce grows to 4,500 employees.
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1983
The neighbouring M27 motorway is completed.
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2009
The Transit plant in Kocaeli, Turkey, reaches full production and Southampton plant production is halved. The workforce is reduced to a single shift of approximately 500 people.
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2010
The six millionth Transit worldwide is produced.
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2012
12 October
Closure of the Southampton Ford Assembly Plant is announced.
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2013
26 July
The Southampton Ford Assembly Plant closes.
August
Decommissioning begins, with the site being closed section by section.
The Vehicle Distribution Centre at Southampton Docks and the Vehicle Refurbishment Centre on the plant site remain.
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2017
Mountpark begins developing the site into a logistics park.
Cunliffe-
Briggs 
Ford
The Transit era begins
Mountpark