Motoring In The Last 100 Years, The Wolverhampton Way

8/10/2019 Motoring In The Last 100 Years, The Wolverhampton Way

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Peter was born in 1940 in Wolverhampton, where he was raised and

spent his working life both in and around many of the companies

included in this book. Unfortunately he suffered a major stroke at the

age of thirty-four. After a period of recovery and rehabilitation, he

began the next phase of his life working at his own pace on his own

smallholding.


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Peter M orrey

M O T O R I N G

I N

T H E

L A S T

100

Y E A R S T H E

W O L V E R H A M P T O N

W A Y


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Copyright Peter Morrey

The right of Peter Morrey to be identified as author of this work has

been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,

without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this

publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims fordamages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British

Library.

ISBN 978 1 78455 037 0

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2015)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

LondonE14 5LB

Printed and bound in Great Britain


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Acknowledgments

Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies, for photos and information.John Meadows, for photographs, drawings and specification information on

Henry Meadows Ltd and Meadows Frisky.John Favill, for his working experience, photographs and specification

information on Meadows, Villiers Engineering and Norton Villiers.

John Drewett, for his working experience, photographs and specificationinformation on Meadows.Roy Dumbell, a member of the family of Turner Manufacturing companys

founder, and the chairman and managing director until the 1980s, and Larry

Hopkins, assistant chief engineer until recently, for their working experience,photographs and specification information on Turner Manufacturing.

Peter Tutthill, for providing photos, drawings, and some text with regard toKeift Racing Cars, Turner Sports Cars, Meadows Frisky and Raymond Flower.

The late Jack Turner, for his working experience, photographs and

specification information on Turner Sports Cars Also Russ Filby and BrianShaw, for extra information and photographs and help with Turner Sports Cars.

Keith Peckmore, for his working experience, photographs and specificationinformation on Keift Racing Cars and Meadows Frisky.

The late Peter Radcliff for an enormous amount of help with his wealth ofknowledge on diesel engines, and photos of his Fowler Challenger crawlertractor, with Meadows power.

JDHT for their help in providing photos of SS Cars and Jaguar Cars.

The late Norman Cliff, a personal friend, for his working experience withthe Experimental and Racing department of Sunbeam Cars.

Black Country Museum and helpers in providing photos and drawings.Robert Jones, a cousin, for providing me plenty of facts, and a loan of my

grandfathers book Sunbeam Cars up until 1924.

Mike Ridley, for providing his grandfather J.V. Ridleys references toSunbeam Cars including his work sheets and documents.

The late Tony Morrey, brother, with all his memories and his letter fromBob Roberts, the late owner of the Sunbeam Tiger, and the late Paul Morrey

with his photo of the same car and other photos.

Alan Richens and all members of STD Register for their help in providing

photos and specification information of Sunbeam cars.Daimler Lanchester Owners Club, for providing information and photos of

Daimler cars.The Montague Motor Museum, for photos of Sunbeam and various other

cars.


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PREFACE

This book looks at motoring in the last hundred years from two viewpoints. Oneis that of the end user such as my own family with their private and commercialexperiences. The other is about the formation and life of at least five companies

that have made Wolverhampton a great place to be at during the last hundredodd years of the motoring industrys history. For example: Sunbeam Motor CarCompany Ltd, Villiers Engineering Ltd, Turner Manufacturing Co. Ltd, GuyMotors Ltd and Henry Meadows Ltd. I have a particular interest in these partly

because of where I was born and raised, namely Wolverhampton, partly becauseof family and friends who have worked in and around these companies, but

mainly because of the pleasure that I have always found in anything to do withengines, cars, trucks, buses and tractors. Also, although engines are central tothe history of motoring, I have occasionally digressed into some of their other

applications. I hope you find the book as interesting and informative as I havefound the research done to produce it. I would also like to take this opportunity

to thank all the people who have assisted me in this process you know whoyou are.


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1.

A Little of my Family History

My father Eric, and his elder brother Bob, with their widowed mother Daisy,had moved into the Turf Tavern at Penn Common, Wolverhampton at the tailend of 1913. My real grandfather Arthur Morrey, with Daisy and two children,

had been the licencee from 1905, of a public house at Floodgate Street inDigbeth, Birmingham. But he had become desperately ill with consumption, anddied. Within two weeks, the owners of the pub, Holt Breweries, terminated thetenancy, and evicted Daisy and her two children along with their few chattels.

So she came back to Wolverhampton crestfallen and in tears, worried that shewould become a person with no money, and forced into the 'workhouse' at

Trysull. She spent the next few days arranging for Bob to stay with George, hisgrandfather, and for Eric to stay with her sister in the centre of the town. Shethen got a job within the trade, as a barmaid at the Shakespeare public house in

Queen Street, Wolverhampton; this would tide her over the shortage of money.Her next port of call was to West End Brewery, who owned the Shakespeare,

enquiring as to whether they would have any small public houses, or ale housesto let. This was with a view to her becoming a tenant, as she had a few years

valuable experience of being the wife of the licensee at a city centre pub inBirmingham.

Daisy was offered the tenancy of the small public house, brewery owned,which was called the Turf Tavern Inn. The Inn had been the drinking and eatingestablishment catering for the gentle people of the horse racing fraternity. Therewas a nearby pool, constantly fed by a stream, which provided watering forhorses which ran on the well known horse racing track, dating back to 1680. Thehorse racing track was in the centre of Penn Common, and belonged to HisGrace The Duke of Sutherland.

Turf Tavern, at Turf Cottages, Penn Common, around 1900, (By courtesy of

Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies)


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At the time of my grandmother taking over the tenancy, a regular visitor

during the evening for the odd half pint of mild at the Turf Tavern was ArthurCollins, a small farmer who lived just along the lane at 12 Turf Cottages. He

was a pleasant, extremely kind, and well-mannered man, who rented a small

farm from the agents of the Duke of Sutherland; the farm buildings of whichwere just around the corner, at the end of the lane. He got on well with Daisy

and the boys, and in March 1914 Daisy got married for the second time, toArthur, and provided a step-father for them. So they grew up to be farmersboys.

Three boys on a horse taken in 1915 at Ar thur Coll ins farm. The centre one is

Er ic M orr ey, on his left is his elder brother Bob, on the right is his younger step

brother F rank Coll ins; holding the reins is his stepfather Ar thur

Upper Penn, a village now mainly within the borough of Wolverhampton,had its origins in pre-Saxon times and the name is a British one meaning 'hill'.Even today the nucleus of the village is around St Bartholomews Church,which stands on top of the hill, with the road Church Hill on the one side and the

land falling away on the other side to Penn Common stretching away to GospelEnd and Sedgley. Between the 1920s and 1930s Penn Common had become

something of a recreational area. Outings to the Common were popular andbecame easier as tram and bus services from Wolverhampton and Sedgley

expanded. Tea shops sprung up, one of which was operated by my grandmother

from the cottage on the corner of the row. She did this while still carrying outher work at the public house. The aforementioned cottage had been vacated byArthur Collins when he married my grandmother Daisy, and the couple became

the occupants of the The Turf Tavern. The license for the public house was,however, held by my grandmother.


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At the age of sixteen Eric was taken on by John Fellows (Engineers) Ltd ofWolverhampton, as an apprentice, where he spent seven years, for the main part,

filing parts or castings, or being a go for this, that and the other for theengineers. He had to do various jobs on his stepfathers farm before 7.30 a.m. in

the morning, and after 5.30 p.m. in the evening. This involved such jobs as

being the milkman before breakfast, with the pony and milk float. We willreturn to my father later on.


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2.

The Sunbeam Story, from 1899 1935

My own family gave me an enormous amount of information about theSunbeam operation from their first hand experience; and then, later in life, myfriendship with Norman Cliff gave me access to his memories of his fifteen

years of life in the experimental and racing department of Sunbeam. Morerecently I joined the Sunbeam Talbot Darracq Register and learned far more. Ihave had a lot of help from Mike Ridley the grandson of J (Jack) V Ridley, aspecialist mechanic for Sunbeam and previously a time-served gunmaker. Also

Oliver Heal an STD Register member, and a friend of Bill Perkins, one ofSunbeams leading specialised mechanics, provided much useful information.

As has Alan Richens, who was the Editor of the STD Journal and a friend ofBasil Wildings, whose father Henry was the Engineer-in-charge of thedepartment concerned. All of this has been combined to produce the detail in

this history of Sunbeam Motor Car Company Ltd.My grandfather Percy worked for Sunbeam from 1905 until the closure of

the company by the liquidator in 1935. My father, Eric, also worked at thefactory for a short while. There is, in my family, an edition of a book entitled

The History and Development of the Sunbeam Car, 1899 1924. Theintroduction is by W.M. Iliff, the third Managing Director of Sunbeam, who

included the company statistics up to 1924, producing a souvenir of a quarter ofa century of Sunbeam success and service. Some sections of the book werewritten by Alderman John Marston, JP, the founder and first Chairman of thecompany, and some were written by a close friend and confidante of Mr Illif,who put his descriptions into words.

The grand old man of Wolverhampton, Alderman John Marston, JP, to usehis own words, began life in a Wolverhampton factory by 1899. By the age of

twenty-three he had started up as a manufacturer himself, producing tin plateand japanned ware for the proletariat of the period. He was one of those staunch

mid-Victorian types who grew to a large and robust a stature despite that he keptsuch long office hours, and attended to so much detail in the 'fuggy' atmosphere

of a Black Country factory, that the medical men of to-day would assure us it

was impossible for a human being to develop in such conditions.The start of the Sunbeam Motor Company Ltd., was relatively so obscure,

and on so small a scale, as to contain no hint of the greatness of the company'sefforts in the field of motor engineering, the world over.

Thomas Cureton, after completing his apprenticeship with John Marston'scycle making business, followed through to be Chairman of the Sunbeam Motor

Car Company Ltd.It was he who was completely responsible for the inception of the first

Sunbeam car when, in 1899, he and Harry Dinsdale, the builder of the prototype,had drawn up specifications and drawings and had built an experimental car. He

prepared a formal report on the experimental car to the main board, which wascompletely accepted, much to the surprise of various detracting associate friends


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of John Marston. Many of preliminaries to the launching of the Sunbeam motorcar were conducted on Sunday mornings on the lawn at Mr Marston's home, or

the drive of Mr Cureton's residence. The first Sunbeam was never sold to thepublic at large.

From the outset the company car was equipped with a vertical cylinder

engine and through their own efforts and resources, and the Sunbeam car wasbuilt throughout by John Marston's company. The parts were cast locally, and

bored by that parent company, which also built the sparking plugs and theradiator, although at that time there was quite a vogue for vertical engines inmost of the competitors.

During 1900 another type of car was considered and built by the company. Ithad the wheels forming a diamond pattern, and was designed by Maxwell

Maberly-Smith. It was placed on the market in quantity in 1901, under the nameof Sunbeam-Mabley, and it proved to be quite successful at 130.

The following quotation from theAutocarof September 22 1900 reads:

The latest accession to the ranks of autocar manufacturers are Messrs. JohnMarston Ltd. of Wolverhampton. This firm has been long and honourably known

in the cycle trade as manufacturers of the Sunbeam, which is one of the bestfinished, and best made bicycles on the British market. The autocar will beknown as the Sunbeam, and will be driven by a 4hp water-cooled engine, which

will be placed in front of the car, and natural circulation of the water will bedepended upon, no pump being used. Electric ignition, lubrication from a centralstation, belt transmission giving two speeds forward, and reverse, may be

mentioned among the features of the car. Although straps connect the engineshaft with the counter shaft, toothed straps connect gearing is used to

communicate the motion of the latter to the car.,

The diamond-formation and al legedly skid proof Sunbeam-Mabely voiturette

with a 2.75 hp De Dion engine, of whi ch approximately 125 plus were sold in

1901 to 1904. - (Picture by courtesy of the Black Country Museum.)


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In 1901 the second Sunbeam car was designed on a similar principle, beinga Sunbeam modified Panhard of a nominal 6 h.p., with the body styled by

Forders. At this time the horizontal prime mover was installed in a chassis,where it was fitted with an extra belt and a reverse gear. The complete car was

wholly British built, with the sole exception of the accumulators.

1903 saw the 12 hp Sunbeam car launched onto the market by John MarstonLtd. It was said by The Automotor Journal, that it was particularly interesting,

when describing the Sunbeam 12 hp, at the last show at the Crystal Palaceexhibition, to find such an exceptionally fine finish to the carriage work on thisvehicle. The Automotor Journal had recently paid a visit to the Company'sworks at Wolverhampton, and found that they had been extended to cope withthe demand for this larger vehicle, as well as for their already well-known

Mabley cars, which they had done so well within the past. The Company wereby now manufacturing the greater part of their Sunbeam cars themselves. They

did not however make the engines themselves at that time, but selected a well-made Berliet-based engine, which they subjected to a careful testing beforefitting. A large number of the 12 hp vehicles were in course of constructionduring their visit. The cars were made on thoroughly well known lines, the main

frame being built of ash and steel. The engine and the change-speed-gear werecarried upon a separate underframe, which was made out of angle steel of

unusual section.A light sheet of metal casing entirely enclosed the engine and gearbox on

the underside, and this was rendered dustproof in front by a leather strap which

could be let down in order to inspect the commutator or other parts of theengine. The engine had four cylinders cast in pairs; they had a bore of 33/16 ins.,

and the stroke was 411

/16 ins. The normal speed was 800 revolutions per minute,and its range of speed was from 100 to 1,000 r.p.m. The inlet valves wereatmospherically operated, and so were arranged that they could be removedwithout disconnecting the pipe leading from the carburettor. It was onlynecessary to unscrew a plug above either of the valves in order to lift it out,complete with its seat. The cam-shaft operating the exhaust valves was enclosed

in the crank chamber, and a centrifugal governor and commutator were mountedon its forward end. The carburettor was of the Company's own special design

and was in general respects similar to others of the float-feed spray type. The

throttle-valve formed part of it, and was of a cylindrical plunger form. It wasconnected with the governor and was inter-connected with an accelerator foot

pedal and with a hand-lever on the steering pillar, which regulated the normalspeed. The timing of ignition could also be regulated from a lever on the

steering wheel.The engine was lubricated by a belt-driven mechanical lubricator on the

dashboard. Four separate exhaust pipes led to an exhaust box placed alongsidethe engine, and the burnt gases were allowed to escape through a pipe passing to

the back of the car. The cylinders were water-cooled and a centrifugal pump wasused for circulating the water around them, and through the radiator in front of

the bonnet.


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The 1904 Crystal Palace Motor Show saw Sunbeam exhibiting a model ofthe 12-16 hp four cylinder, and also a new six-cylinder, cast in three rows of

two-cylinders each.

The first six-cylinder engine as shown in a Sunbeam book.

The famous Sunbeam of 1906 had a bore of 95mm, a stroke of 120mm,four-cylinders cast in one, a stroke side valve, 16-20 h.p., all with a four speed

gearbox. The basic car chassis price was 480, the price with a body was 530,and all the extras were 18, i.e. for a Capecart (hood), a front windscreen, etc.


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In 1905 Percy Jones left Daimler, and went to work for Thomas Cureton theGeneral Manager of Sunbeam Motor Car Company Ltd, as the Manager of the

seating and leather work department. Sidney Slater Guy was appointed bySunbeam's Board of Directors, to be Works Manager; originally he had been the

Works Manager of Humber Motors of Coventry.

Percy and Agnes Jones were my grandparents on my maternal side. Theywere provided with a company owned house on the road from Wolverhampton

to Penn, and he was fetched by car each working day, which shows you howmuch they thought of him. He made seats to fit any customer, and also for all theracing cars, and the special cars used for world record attempts by professionaldrivers.

The six-cylinder 20-30 hp Sunbeam of 1907 was an extremely high priced

car. It comprised an overhead valve monobloc engine, cardan drive shaft, fourwheel braking, and was electrically lit. The five seater touring car version had an

electric starter, electric horn, adjustable windscreen, one-man operated hoodwith side curtains and a spare wheel, all for 950. But the new (for 1908) four-cylinder Sunbeam was rated at 35 hp, and sold in chassis form for a moremoderate 620; but with a limousine body called the Laundaulette it was priced

at 842. When I say that Sunbeams were an extremely high priced car, we haveto bear in mind that the average working wage at that time for the ordinary

worker was approximately 2 shillings and 6 pence per day, pre-decimalisationmoney (now 17 pence per day), for blacksmiths or similar it was approximately5 shillings and 10 pence per day, (now 29 pence per day), and an engine driver

at the head of a colliery pit would earn approximately 6 shillings and 6 penceper day, (now 33 pence per day, or 1.78 for a five and a half day week). So, a

man with a highly paid job, like the engine driver, would take 533 weeks, ornearly ten years, without any other expenses, to buy a six-cylinder Sunbeam car;thus leaving the cars for company directors or independently wealthy men.

It was Thomas Cureton, the managing director of Sunbeam Motor CarCompany, whose business acumen achieved a brilliant stroke by securing theservices of Louis Herve Coatalen in February 1909 as Chief Engineer. Coatalen

was born in the Breton fishing port of Concarneau in 1879, his mother ran asmall hotel there, his father built a workshop and forge nearby.

He attended the Department of Finistere in 1895 or thereabout. His training

as an engineer at the Gadzarts, the Ecole des Arts et Mtiers, was a goodpreparation and initiation into the serious mathematical side of life; it took three

hard years. He found work at the drawing offices of Panhard, Clement, De DionBouton, Levasser and Darraq where he acquired invaluable experience with the

French and German motor enterprises, which were at that time leading the worldin automobile engineering, design and building. In 1900 he came to work forCharles Crowden of H.J. Lawsons British Motor Syndicate, leaving a fewmonths later when he joined the Humber Company as chief engineer in 1901.

The financial situation of Humber of Coventry was failing with the passing ofthe bicycle trade, and was seeking to establish itself as a proper motor car

manufacturer. He designed the 10-12 hp Coventry Humber car, restoring thecompany to prosperity. For it was the first four-cylinder, live axle, British made,middle size vehicle to be sold at about 300. The demand for it being so great,


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that it had to be assembled in the streets of Coventry, it being impossible toextend the factory so quickly. Coatalen then joined the Mr. Hillman for a time in

the production of the Hillman-Coatalen car. He was so well thought of that hewas appointed managing director of the Hillman Company in 1907.

Thomas Cureton thought that Coatalen's talent should be put to put to work

for the Sunbeam Company, and so he joined the company in February 1909, andhe designed the 16-20 hp car. The spirit of sportsmanship manifested itself from

the outset in his policy with regard to entering this vehicle in all the principalhill-climbing tests and reliability trials throughout that year; particularly so whenit scored a notable success in the Royal Scottish Automobile Clubs 1,000 mileseries.

In 1911 Sunbeams factory covered 4.6 acres, and produced just short of 850

cars. The Coatalen-designed Sunbeam was thought to be so big it would be aswell to have a smaller model. Whereupon, Coatalen designed the first version of

the world-famous 12-16 hp, four-cylinder Sunbeam engine, which had a boreand stroke of 80 mm x 120 mm, and the cylinders were cast in pairs. How wellthe public received it may be gathered from the fact that in the year 1910 theimmediate expansion of manufacturing facilities led up to the building of more

workshops on the opposite side of Upper Villiers Street from the originalfactory. Later in 1914 Mr. Cureton retired from the position of Managing

Director, and W.M. Iliff and Louis Coatalen were appointed joint ManagingDirectors. Louis Coatalen directed most of the effort of the CompetitionsDepartment from 1912 onwards, with four Sunbeam racing cars entered in the

Coupe De LAuto and coming 1

st

, 2

nd

and 3

rd

, also at the French Grand Prix in1912 they managed 3rd

, 4th and 5

th. These two events were run concurrently.

Sunbeam took many racing successes in 1914, the most famous victory was inthe Isle of Man Tourist Trophy when Kenelm Lee Guinness proved the winnerin the Peugeot inspired car. Production of cars stopped later in the same year dueto the fighting in Europe in WWI, with extremely good business being done dueto the war creating a large demand for Sunbeam engines, and highly powerfulSunbeam Coatalen aero engines.

During the time of WWI, licences to build were taken out on the EuropeanContinent and America. The type of engines ranged from 150 hp with 8 water-

cooled cylinders and side valves. The middle ranges included: the 100 hp six-

cylinder 175 hp Dyak; the overhead-valve Amazon; the twelve-cylinderoverhead-valve 275 Mauri 11 and Mauri 1V airship type; the overhead valve

eighteen-cylinder 400 hp Viking; and the V-12 800 to 900 hp Sikh. The pre-warSunbeam Coalalen 225 hp V-12 side-valve Mohawk aero-engine was fitted to

the Short Type 184 sea planes, which flew at the Battle of Jutland on the 31st

May 1916 between the British and German fleets. The orders came fromAdmiral Beatty, as recorded in Admiral Jellicoes official despatches. The seaplane took off from the sea alongside the seaplane carrier HMSEngardine, and

located the German light cruiser force. This was the first time an aircraft hadever taken part in a major naval battle.


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A Short 184 at Queensborough in June 1917, fi tted with a Sunbeam 260 hp Maur i

1,fi tted with an experimental honeycomb radiator, as shown in Shorts Aircraft

since 1900 by C.H. Barnes.

A promising new alternative engine had been brought into the aircraft

industry in 1915, that being the Sunbeam-Coatalen Aero Engine with a 150 hpV8 water-cooled engine named the Nubian. Its makers, John Marston & Sons

Ltd of Wolverhampton, operating as Sunbeam Motor Car Company took the twobanks of their 3-litre Grand Prix car racing engine, and constructed a lower

crankcase cover and made aV8 aero-engine. They then installed it in a MauriceFarman aircraft, which was flown for long periods at Brooklands by JackAlcock during the summer of 1913. Having demonstrated its reliability it was

then adopted by the Admiralty as the Nubian.The smaller of the Short seaplanes was modified to take the Sunbeam-

Coatalen engine, and its performance was enhanced by an extra 15 hp, at thesame weight as the previously fitted Salmson engine. The name of Salmsoncomes from Commander Charles Salmson, of the Royal Naval Air Services,who was to prove to be one of the great innovators of the war. He had been the

first man to launch an airplane off a ship. The Salmson engine was in effect aBritish based engine which was built from a Gnome design, and introduced on

the Short 135, built with the following options: a Salmson135 hp; a Sunbeam-

Coatalen 135 hp in one size; a Salmson 200 hp; the Sunbeam-Coatalen 225 hpMohawk; and in the larger size, the 240 hp Gurkha engine.

In 1914 Louis Coalalen began work on the 12-cylinder version of his 150 hpV8 engine. Capt. Murray Sueter, Director of the Air Department and Controller

of the Royal Naval Air Services, saw this as an excellent power plant for a long-range torpedo-carrier, with a substantially better performance than the 200 hp

Salmson could offer. Capt. Sueter, with Lieut. Hyde-Thomspon, had drawn up adetailed specification for a seaplane to carry a 14-inch Whitehead torpedo, witha crew of two. When Murray Seuter first explained his requirements to HoraceShort, one of the Short brothers, he replied, Well, if you require this

particularly to be done, I will produce a seaplane that will satisfy you. From


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this the Short Type 184 Seaplane was instigated, though quite as frequentlycalled the Two-Two-Five referring to the horsepower of its Sunbeam-Coatalan

engine. There was an initial order for ten Type 184s in 1915, and seventy-fiveType 184s later.

In October 1914 the original RNAS depot ship Hermes had been fully

refitted as a seaplane-carrier, but was torpedoed and sunk in the EnglishChannel. The converted seaplane carriers Engadine, Empress and Riviera, the

recently converted Campania, the old Cunard liner, and several Isle of Manpackets, theBen-my-Chreein particular, had been commissioned about the sametime as the first flight of 184; and on 21

st May 1915, left Harwich for the

Dardinelles. She arrived at Mitylene on the 12th

June, and two months later bothTypes 184 and 185 launched their torpedoes in anger, and with effect. There

were 312 Short Type 184s in the RAF at the Armistice, all but 30 havingSunbeam-Coatalen aero-engines; and they remained in service until the end of

1920.Percy Jones, my grandfather and the manager of the leather work, told my

father Eric, that it was common knowledge amongst the workers of Sunbeamthat Sidney Guy, who was their boss at Sunbeam, after a falling out with the

management in 1914, left to set up on his own account as Guy Motors Ltd, atFallings Park, Wolverhampton. It was reputed that he had increased the

profitable working of Sunbeam by a terrific amount, by various cost cuttingmethods and more profitable operations. He had asked the management for anequivalent percentage raise in his salary, only to be refused. More of that move

to Fallings Park will be mentioned later on in the book.Alderman John Marston, the Mayor of Wolverhampton, apart from starting

Sunbeam Car Company, was the manufacturer of a bicycle at the workssurrounded by Jeddo Street, and part of Paul Street in 1887. It was generally feltthat Coventry was the hub of cycle manufacture during the 1860s, butWolverhampton was also very important in the industry; and by 1890 about fiftymanufacturers of cycles were in the nearby area. The way the sun glinted on theframe of John Marston's bike, prompted his wife to suggest that the name of

Sunbeam should be used. The bicycle was a great success, and the name ofSunbeam was registered, and the Paul Street plant was called Sunbeamland.

Shortly afterwards the nearby Villiers Street premises were purchased, and

the Villiers Cycle Components Co. was founded, with Charles, the son of John,in charge, under the chairmanship of John. Both the Villiers Street factory and

the Moorfield Road factory for Sunbeam motor cars were surrounded by PennRoad, Marston Road, part of Upper Villiers Street, Chetwynd Road and part of

Goldthorn Road; thus covering an area of half a square mile. Villiers Street wasnamed after the Rt. Hon. C. P. Villiers, the Member of Parliament forWolverhampton for an incredible sixty-three years, until he died on the 16

th

January 1898.


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3 racing cars at Brooklands in 1925

In the photograph above, the car on the left is a 1914 Sunbeam Grand Prix

car, fitted with a 6-cylinder 5-litre engine. The car in the centre is a 1921/22Sunbeam/Talbot-Darracq chassis fitted with a 3-litre 8-cylinder engine. Thefinal car on the right is a 1919/20 Sunbeam V12 350hp world record car,presently in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, see also in the photographbelow.

Dur ing a recent visi t, the picture shows the engine looking very smart with a

coating of alumin ium paint, but with the cam covers masked with cl ingfi lm.


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Sunbeam works around 1924.

After 1925, the effort would be in record breaking, other than racing. In

particular Coatalen was suggesting that a series of Sunbeam Coatalen V12 aeroengines, would be effective in tackling the world land speed record. Malcolm

Campbell acquired the car, raising the record from 133.75 mph, held by Kenelm

Lee Guinness in an 18 litre V12 aero engine, first of all to 146.16 mph, and thento 150.87 mph at Pendine. This car was conceived and built between 1919 and

1921. This record was beaten in 1926 by Henry Seagrave in the 4 litre, V12

Sunbeam Tiger, who recorded 152.33 mph.The massive 27 litre aero-engined V12 Liberty driven by Parry Thomas,

beat the record in the following season, raising it to 170 mph. The challenge wasthrown down and Coatalen had decided with Henry Seagrave to set their sightson a Sunbeam car which would travel at 200 mph. Coatalens idea was that he

could site two of his Matabele engines in one car.Coatalen was very efficient with his engine designs of his series of overhead

valve-engined cars, and was successful in the field of marine craft. TheExperimental and Racing Department was very busy dealing with producing by

hand various high powered car racing engines. They were also producing highspeed power boat racing engines for racing at Monaco, such as the V8 Crusaderengines, which were originally aero-engines. He decided to purchase a Henry

Farman aeroplane, and to experiment using his own Sunbeam aero engines to

power it. This aeroplane was flown by Sir John Alcock, being the first man tomake history in crossing the Atlantic in 1919 in a 'heavier than air machine',

powered by a Sunbeam 150 hp V8 aero engine. The Sunbeam Car Company wasone of the few firms in the world which had standardised aero engines, designed

and built of sufficient power to lift British seaplanes into the air; these engines

being available before the impending war broke out. The aero engine enterprisemeant much more prosperity during the war, when demand increased from theWar Office for more powerful aero and marine craft engines such as in theBristol fighters and seaplanes. The demand was so great for Sunbeam aero-


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engines that, even with the acres of extra factory space that had beenconstructed, some still had to be manufactured under licence by other firms.

The designing staff of Sunbeam produced many types of aero engines atMoorfield Road during the first four years of WW I, some with side valves; but

as the result of its racing car practice, the overhead valve came to the fore with

the demand for more horse power. Sunbeam had the 'dry sump' system oflubrication, invented by Louis Coatalen, as a matter of course. The whole design

embraced other features which has revolutionised engine performance. Demandswere made for aero engines of 250 hp, with occasional bursts to 350 hp for fouror five minutes for emergencies, but yet need to have economy, reliability and along working life.

In 1929, my father Eric's need for a better paid job drew him just five

minutes down the road to Sunbeam in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, after seeingthe companys advertisement for workers. He was offered a position in the

plywood flooring division of the ash framing and seating department. Heworked under Percy Jones, the manager of the department, whose family homewas in Welshpool. Percy Jones had served an apprenticeship in the seating andleather work department of a carriage company, which manufactured high

quality horse drawn carriages, but then he had moved on to work with DaimlerMotor Company (1904) Ltd in Coventry.

The 1905 Daimler 28hp landaulette which was the type of car that Percy Jones

would have worked on.

The Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd, as it was originally called, was formed in

1896 by F. R. Simms to exploit Gottlieb Daimler's motor patents, of the GermanDaimler Company, (Daimler-Motoren-Gelleschaft) of Cannstatt. The Coventry

Motoring In The Last 100 Years, The Wolverhampton Way

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