Bligh Bros.

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Bligh Bros. was a British coachbuilder who initially manufactured carriages and, in the 20th century, bodies for automobiles. One of Bligh's best-known creations is the unique Chitty Bang Bang type racing car .

Company history

Aston Martin dressed by Bligh Bros. (1922)
1968 made replica of the Chitty Bang Bang III car body by Bligh

Bligh was based in the southeastern city of Canterbury . The company was founded in 1812 by William Bligh. Bligh initially worked as a wheelwright. In the mid-19th century, his sons William, John, Jasper and Henry took over the business. From around 1860 the company manufactured complete carriages. Bligh had initially mainly local customers in the county of Kent , but expanded from about 1870 to London . The Bligh brothers opened a showroom in downtown Covent Garden . In the British capital, the company achieved some success; Bligh's designs have won several awards at national and international exhibitions.

With the increasing spread of the automobile at the beginning of the 20th century, numerous British carriage manufacturers switched their production to automobile bodies. Examples are Barker , Maythorn and Rippon Brothers . It is unclear whether Bligh Bros. also took this route in the first decade of the 20th century. What is certain, however, is that Bligh ran into economic difficulties during this period, had to give up the showroom in London and was insolvent in 1913.

After the First World War , Bligh was taken over by the Polish Count Louis Zborowski , who lived on the Higham Park estate near Canterbury. Zborowski, a passionate amateur racing driver, designed four racing cars that he named Chitty Bang Bang . Some of them were equipped with aircraft engines. Bligh made the bodywork for two of the models (Chitty II and III). At the same time, Bligh made superstructures for road vehicles from Aston Martin and Hispano-Suiza , each of which remained unique. They probably went back to orders from Zborowski.

After Zborowski's accidental death in 1924, Bligh stopped building the body. The company limited itself to the repair of automobiles and the auto trade. In the following decades, numerous branches in east Kent were added to the headquarters in Canterbury. The operation was only stopped in 1974.

The building on Radigund Street, Canterbury, where Bligh Bros. was based, still exists.

literature

Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Summary of the history of Count Louis Zborowski on the website www.canterbury-buildings.org.uk (accessed on June 27, 2015).
  2. ^ A b c Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 80.
  3. ^ Illustration of the Chitty-Bang-Bang II (1921) (accessed on June 28, 2015).
  4. ↑ Image of a Hispano Suiza H6B with Bligh body (accessed June 28, 2015).
  5. ↑ Illustration of the building on the website www.geograph.org.uk (accessed on June 28, 2015).