
For several years, Ford sent cars from its Dagenham plant to ED Abbott, Farnham, to be converted into estate cars, creating several interesting variants, such as this Anglia.
Building your own body variants was reserved for expensive cars like Bentley and Rolls Royce. If you had enough money, you could choose special and unique bodies. But after the war, British body companies were also used to build variants of common car models.
Do you recognize the car in the picture above? It's a Ford 105E Anglia converted into a "hatchback" with a tailgate and folding rear seat. It was marketed as a "Sports Saloon" that could be ordered through your Ford dealer, or you could bring your own Ford Anglia to E.D. Abbott in Farnham. Then you could deliver the car with an inward-sloping rear window and get back a practical hatchback with a top-hinged tailgate.
We'll come back to the Ford Anglia later.
The collaboration between Ford and ED Abbott began in the early 1950s. During a lunch break, a designer at the coachbuilding company had doodled over a brochure image of a Ford Zephyr mk1. He had redrawn the saloon model into a sleek station wagon and showed the drawing to his boss, who was so impressed that he presented it to the Ford boss in Dagenham. This was the start of a long-standing collaboration, with Ford sending half-finished cars to Farnham for conversion into station wagons.

In the 1950s, station wagons were not as popular as they are today. People who needed extra space for practical reasons bought vans. Station wagons became a type of car designed for those who wanted extra space without sacrificing the elegance of a sedan – according to advertising at the time. One of Ford's best station wagon customers was the police. Uniformed mk2 Zephyrs eventually became a common sight on English roads. In 1956, a complete Zephyr sedan could be converted into a station wagon for £200. The price for semi-finished cars was £145, and a ready-to-deliver station wagon cost £1227. At that time, Abbot converted 30 cars per week (source: Classic & Sports Car).

Edward Dixon Abbott began building coachworks as early as 1929 after serving as an RAF pilot in World War I. In the interwar period, coachwork was carried out on finer prestige cars such as Bentley, Lagonda, Lanchester, Healey and Talbot. The orders from Ford came at a time when coachbuilders were generally less busy. When Mr Abbot retired in the late 1s, the company was sold to R. Gordon Sutherland who drove Friary Motors – a car company in Old Windsor. both Friary og E.D. Abbott built station wagons under the same ownership.

The collaboration with Ford continued until 1971 with the conversion of, among other things, Ford corsair og Zephyr/Zodiac to estate cars referred to as "Farnham Estates". When Ford began producing its new Consul og Granada series, they decided to produce the station wagons themselves. This meant the end of the "Abbotts of Farnham".
One thing that makes converted estate cars attractive is that you can clearly see the lines of the saloon models they are based on. For example, notice how elegantly the tailgate of the Zephyr/Zodiac mk3 is shaped around the saloon model's rear wings. One model that took the clean lines of the saloon model was Vauxhall Cresta/Velox Friary Estate – today considered one of the most elegant of its kind. One Vauxhall Velox was converted on behalf of the Queen.
Ford Anglia Touring Saloon

Station wagons signed Abbotts of Farnham
For several years, Ford sent cars from its Dagenham plant to ED Abbott, Farnham, to be converted into estate cars, creating several interesting variants, such as this Anglia. See more
In 1961, Friary was commissioned to convert the Ford 105E Anglia into a station wagon – or Touring Saloon under which it was marketed. During the conversion, the roof was retained, while the rear side window was replaced with a new one that followed the contours of the new sloping "fastback" rear section. The tailgate was designed to fit into the groove of the original boot lid. After a year, the design of the Ford Anglia Friary was changed because customers had experienced leaks through the new rear side window. Instead, it was chosen to retain the Anglia's original rear side window and extend the section at the C-pillar. The new cars were sold as Ford 105E Anglia Sports Saloon, colloquially referred to as Anglia Abbott Estate. The parts probably came from Friary. According to advertisements the conversion cost £75 excluding labour cost carried out at Abbott in Farnham.
At the same time as the new Abbott Estate was being produced, Ford in Dagenham had begun producing its own Anglia estate. It offered more space, but had new taillights and rear wings without the small characteristic fins. So you could say that some of the model's identity had been lost?

It would be cool to own a car like that today 🙂
See




National Transport Trust – Abbots of Farnham
Classic & Sports Car – Ford Zephyr MkII Farnham Estate