Vauxhall Ironworks Co
of Vauxhall Iron Works, Wandsworth Road, London
1896 Vauxhall Ironworks Co established as successors to Alexander Wilson and Co with William Gardner and John Henry Chambers as joint managing directors.
1897 Vauxhall Ironworks were involved in the lock-out in the engineering trade[1]
1898 Frederick William Hodges, a marine engineer interested in the automobile, became head of the drawing office and assistant to the Works manager John Henry Chambers
1900 Rudolph Selz joined the company and was made a director a year later
1902 Percy Crosbie Kidner joins and becomes a director in the following year
1902 Started manufacturing cars, with a single horizontal cylinder engine[2] These were prototype models.
1903 April. Announced their first production car, the '5hp Light Car' at 130 gns., with a horizontally mounted single-cylinder engine of 970cc and two-speed epicyclic gearbox. First one sold to J. R. Jones, a sanitary inspector, of Kennington Park. Two of these 1903 cars still exist.
1903 Made 46 cars in the first full year of production[3]
1903 December. Chambers resigns as joint-MD and is replaced by Kidner as joint-MD with Gardner
1904 January. Announce a 6hp model
1904 December. Sign-off on a 6.5hp model
1904 Feb-Dec. Seventy cars made. Most had carriage work by Morgan and Co
1904 Around 180 persons employed in cramped conditions. In April a new site of just over 6 acres was purchased in Luton from Julius Werner. It came with a railway siding to the Midland Railway
1904 November. Announced a three-cylinder 2.5-litre 12-14hp model at £375 (chassis only). Twenty made in the old premises and 12 in Luton. Alfred James Hancock, an ex-apprentice and later Works Manager, raced one in the 1905 Tourist Trophy Race
1904 December. Announce a three-cylinder 1.3-litre 7-9hp model at £200. 52 were built in the old premises. After the move to Luton the engine was increased to 1.7-litres and in November 1905 it was launched as the 9hp. One 7-9hp still exists.
1905 To expand its production, the company moved the majority of its production to Luton. The opening ceremony was on March 29th. The new building measured 180 x 240 feet with four internal bays and brick offices at one end. They merged with the West Hydraulic Engineering Co who had moved from Bradford to an adjoining site in Luton.
1905 March. Directors: R. Everett, (Chairman); A. E. Ash, (Works Manager); P. C. Kidner; R. Selz; and F. W. Hodges.
1905 The Vauxhall and West Hydraulic Engineering Co was formed by the amalgamation of the Vauxhall Ironworks Co of Vauxhall, London and West Hydraulic Engineering Co of Luton and formerly of Bradford[4]
1905 September. Advert lists them as the Vauxhall and West Hydraulic Engineering Co with works at Luton, Beds.
1905 First car designed at Luton was the four-cylinder 18hp and was short-lived.
1905 Laurence Pomeroy joins the company
1907 Vauxhall Motors Limited was formed separate from the Vauxhall and West Hydraulic Engineering Co to develop the motor department. The new company had taken over a large part of the 10 acre premises of the old company at Luton. Vauxhall and West Hydraulic Engineering Co was a public company[5]
See Also
Sources of Information
- Vauxhall- Britain's Oldest Car Maker by Ian Coomber. 2017