A Hand In Tradition

At the Bentley factory in Crewe, England, technology enhances—rather than replaces—the brand’s history of artisanal craftsmanship.

- Mikki Brammer

To say there are certain qualities that set Bentley apart from other car brands would be understating things. It’s been the vehicle of choice for royalty, rock stars, and fictional secret agents (in 007 movies James Bond has had a penchant for Aston Martins, but in the books he was a firm Bentley acolyte).

After the brand’s inception in 1919, Bentley was the first to use aluminum pistons in its engines, a technology that it also employed in rotary aircraft engines— specifically for Sopwith Camel biplane fighters—during the First World War. In 1946 it moved its operations from Cricklewood in London to the railway town of Crewe, where its factory still operates today.

Chat with some of the workers stationed throughout the uncannily clean factory and you’ll glean a consistently familial vibe. Many of them have not only worked at Bentley for decades but are just one of several family members— siblings, parents, children—to have done so. That intergenerational tradition likely explains why, though the employees number around 4,000, everyone seems well acquainted with one another and, perhaps even more surprising, happy to be in each other’s company.