Thames (Ford commercial vehicle brand)

Thames, also known as Ford Thames or Fordson Thames, was a commercial vehicle brand produced by Ford of Britain. The name first appeared in 1939 as the Fordson Thames, when Ford of Britain wanted a British brand identity and to separate its passenger and commercial lines. It was used beside the Fordson name on commercial products until 1957, when Fordson was removed from all trucks and kept for farm products such as tractors, and in 1965 Ford dropped the Thames name and all its vans and trucks were sold under the Ford name. The range included the Fordson E83W light van, built from 1938 and also sold as a Thames from 1952; the Fordson 7V medium and heavy cab-over truck introduced in 1937, the most widely used fire truck of the Second World War; the Thames ET; the Thames Trader of 1957 to 1965; and the car-derived 300E and 307E vans.