The Ford Anglia was a name applied to four different models of car produced by the Ford Motor Company in the UK between 1939 and 1967.
The first model, launched in 1939 and given the internal Ford model code of E04A, was a simple vehicle, aimed at the cheap end of the market and coming as standard with few features. Most were painted Ford black. Styling was typical late-30s with an upright radiator. Production ceased in 1948 for a total of 55,807 built.
1948's new model, code E494A, was a makeover of the previous model with a rather more '40s style front-end, including the sloped, twin-lobed radiator grille, rather reminiscent of a BMW. Again it was a very spartan vehicle. While production as an Anglia ceased in 1953, it continued on as the extremely basic Ford Popular until 1959. Including all production, 108,878 were built.
The new 1953 model, sold as an Anglia at the lower end and as the Ford Prefect in higher models, used the Ford product code 100E for both. This was a completely new car, losing the antiquated look of the previous models for a more modern 'three-box' style. Internally, though, things were not as modern; the engine was still an antiquated side-valve unit and it had vacuum-operated wipers, notorious for slowing down when driving up steep hills. They sold well, however; by the time production ceased in 1959, 345,841 had rolled off the production line.
The final Anglia model was the 105E, introduced in 1959. Its American-influenced styling included a nose line sweeping down to a slanted grille in between prominent 'eye' headlamps. Its smoothly sloped line there looked more like a '50s Studebaker than the more aggressive-looking late-50s American Fords, possibly because its British designers actually cared about wind-tunnel testing and streamlining. Like late-50s Lincolns and Mercurys, the car sported a backward-slanted rear window and a flat roofline (which gave it reasonable rear headroom) and it had something of tailfins, albeit much toned-down from its American counterparts.
The new styling was matched by a new engine, something that the smaller Fords had been needing for some time - a 997cc overhead-valve inline 4. Acceleration from rest was still, by the standards of today, sluggish, but it was much improved from earlier cars.
An estate car (US: station wagon) version was introduced in 1961, and an upscale Anglia 123E Super in 1962 with a larger 1.2 litre engine and much other refinement.
The same car was also sold in Europe and one Europe-only variant was the Anglia Sportsman that carried its spare tyre on the back, somewhat similar to the Continental kit style often seen in the United States. Chrome bumper overriders were also fitted, broad white stripe tyres, and optionally a side stripe kicking up at the end into the taillights/fin.
Anglias were also sold in Australia
Those not otherwise exposed to old British cars will recognise the last Anglia, the 105E, as the flying car in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.