Fast forward 100 years and Bentley employs more than 4,000 people. Although it’s been owned by the Volkswagen Group since 1998, most new Bentleys are still built at the firm’s headquarters in Crewe. In 2020 Bentley sold 11,206 cars worldwide, a record number for the company made even more remarkable by the fact that it was achieved right in the middle of the You-Know-W hat-19 pandemic. The Americas made up 27 per cent of global sales in 2020, although China was a close second making up 26 per cent of cars sold. As for the UK, only 10 per cent of Bentleys built in 2020 went to homes on these shores. Mostly in Cheshire, probably.