Founded by American born Wilber Gun who commenced trading in 1900 as a small motorcycle workshop in Staines, Middlesex. The name Lagonda came from a small creek near his home in Springfield Ohio in the USA. Gun died in 1920, the year that the company moved into car production. Although Lagonda produced cars from 1920 to the 1940's about half of the total production was built in the first five years of the 1920's. Almost everything in the vehicles, including the nuts and bolts were made in house by the 500-800 employees. The engineer W.O. Bentley was employed by Lagonda in the 1930's after the failure of his company and he re-worked and re-designed the engines, producing some of the most luxurious and impressive motor cars of the pre-war period. The company was purchased by David Brown in 1947 and became part of the Aston Martin group as it still is today, Aston Martin Lagonda. Today the beautiful pre-war cars carry a respectable price tag compared to their competitors of the period.