IT IS WELL known that Aston Martin founder and owner Sir David Brown chose Newport Pagnell as the place in which to consolidate the rapidly expanding manufacturing of the iconic cars. What is lesser known is why.
Sir David moved production to bucolic North Buckinghamshire from the company’s factory at Feltham, West London, in 1955. “I can imagine it might have raised a few eyebrows,” said Aston Martin historian Steve Waddingham.
“Remember: this was years before the M1 motorway was built and more than a decade before nearby Milton Keynes was anything more than a similarly rustic neighbouring village.
“The long-standing employees of the time at Feltham must have wondered what on earth was going on.”
This year Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell, the heritage home of the British marque and the place where many of its most famous models of the 20th century were manufactured, is marking the 70thanniversary of the brand’s presence in the town.
As with much of what Sir David achieved during his 25-year tenure at the helm of Aston Martin Lagonda, the rationale behind the move was clear and compelling. Aston Martin, and its relatively newly acquired fellow brand Lagonda, needed production on a much larger scale than before the war if the business was to fulfil its potential and prosper.
The Feltham premises and Sir David’s factories in Yorkshire where some chassis parts were already manufactured and entire car assembly was taking place, did not have enough space to scale up in the way that was needed.
The answer lay in the form of a business Sir David and his team knew well, as it was already carrying out coachbuilding work for Aston Martin: Tickford Ltd, based in Newport Pagnell, was a well-established coachbuilding firm with a proud history and strong reputation for excellent quality workmanship. It already carried out coachbuilding work for Aston Martin and sat on a generous site in Newport Pagnell, split by Tickford Street.
With generations of coachbuilding knowledge, an opportunity to hugely expand production and a geographical location between Sir David’s factories in the north and near London, Newport Pagnell was the obvious choice to host Aston Martin Lagonda car making.
And so in 1955, having been acquired by the David Brown Corporation, what had previously been known as Tickford Coachworks began full production of the Aston Martin DB2/4 mk II, ushering in a golden era of Aston Martin sports cars.
It took years for every facet of the company’s operations to make the move from Feltham – the brand’s motorsport and customer service divisions remained there into the 1960s – but eventually the entire business would operate from the Newport Pagnell premises.
“The arrival of Sir David on that momentous day seven decades ago really did mark the beginning of something special, both for us at Aston Martin Lagonda and, of course, for Newport Pagnell,” said Steve.
“If you think about the years that immediately followed that ambitious move we would quickly see some of the most famous and desired sports cars ever produced all emerge from the factory gates onto Tickford Street. The DB5, DB6, DBS, the V8s – even the hugely sought-after ‘wedge’ Aston Martin Lagonda – plus many more, were all painstakingly built by hand in this small Buckinghamshire town.”
Across Tickford Street from the main factory, Sir David and his team created a customer service operation which later became known as Works Service. Today it is known the world over as Aston Martin Works.
The Aston Martin factory closed in 2007 after the opening of the brand’s new, purpose-built facilities at Gaydon in Warwickshire. But the Aston Martin name remains a cornerstone of Newport Pagnell’s identity thanks to continuing operations at ‘Works’.
The Aston Martin Works business is unique in the brand’s global presence, offering new and pre-owned Aston Martin models for sale alongside heritage car sales, expert servicing and repair of all Aston Martin models of whatever vintage, world-class Aston Martin and Lagonda heritage car restoration, paint and body repairs via its dedicated paint and panel shops, trim repair, restoration and replacement in the in-house trim shop and modern and heritage parts sales.
‘Works’ employs around 100 staff including a dozen apprentices learning their trades in the paint, panel, modern service and heritage service departments. It is a reminder of the brand’s depth of tradition, and the artisan craftsmanship on which it was founded 112 years ago.
“For 70 years now Aston Martin has had a proud association with this site and, as we mark that conspicuous milestone in 2025, I like to think we are also looking forward with ambition and purpose to the next 70 years here,” said Aston Martin Works president Paul Spires.
“Aston Martin Works still represents the passion and dedication to excellence that, I am sure, drove Sir David to centralise his operations at Newport Pagnell all those years ago.
“This is a unique and fascinating part of the ongoing Aston Martin story and I am proud to say that, seven decades after we first moved in, we remain an important part of the community.
“Few car makers anywhere in the world can boast such a long, unbroken association with a particular location and, I like to think, it is the rich heritage and history we have around us here that helps make the Aston Martin Works business such an exclusive and appealing part of the marque today.”
Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell is the historic home of the sports car maker and the place where around 13,000 cars were hand-built before production completed its move to Gaydon, Warwickshire, in 2007.
Now a world-renowned heritage service and restoration facility as well as a new car dealership, it is possible to view, purchase, service and restore cars from every era of the marque’s 112 years at Aston Martin Works.
In 2017, ten years after the Newport Pagnell factory closed, new car production returned to the site with the DB4 GT Continuation. The DB4 GT Zagato Continuation and the DB5 Goldfinger Continuation followed.
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