The Ford Thames 400E was a commercial vehicle made by Ford of Britain

Ford of Britain

Ford of Britain is a British wholly owned subsidiary of Ford of Europe, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Its business started in 1909 and has its registered office in Brentwood, Essex...

 and introduced in 1957. Production of the range continued until September 1965, by which time a total of 187,000 had been built.
By the mid 1950s, Ford lagged well behind the competition in the light commercial market. The model still on offer until 1957 was the trusty but antiquated Fordson E83W, released in 1938. Studies were therefore made of the competition in this sector, with the Morris Commercial 10 cwt

Morris Commercial J-type

The Morris Commercial J-type is a 10 cwt van launched by the Morris Commercial subsidiary of Morris Motors in 1949 and produced until 1961...

 and 15/20 cwt models, of prewar design; Austin 10 cwt, and later their 25 cwt; Trojan

Trojan (automobile)

Trojan was a British automobile manufacturer. Cars with the Trojan marque were made from 1914 and 1974.-Early history:The company was founded by Leslie Hayward Hounsfield who went into business as a general engineer in a small workshop called the Polygon Engineering Works in Clapham, South London...

 15 cwt van; and the Bedford 10/12 cwt

Bedford CA

The Bedford CA was a distinctive pug-nosed light commercial vehicle produced between 1952 and 1969 by Vauxhall Motors subsidiary Bedford Vehicles, in Luton, United Kingdom....

 model all coming in for scrutiny.

A well overdue new 10/12 cwt range was therefore decided upon, to be of the forward control type and of monocoque

Monocoque

Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...

 construction for the van, but based on a ladder type chassis for the pick up truck and some other variants.