Chalmer & Hoyer

Chalmer & Hoyer Hoyal Body Corporation Hoyal Bodybuilding Corporation
legal form	Limited Company
founding	1921
resolution	1931
Reason for dissolution	insolvency
Seat	Poole and Weybridge , UK
management	HW Allingham, M. Chalmer, HH Hamilton
Number of employees	700
Branch	Body shop

Chalmer & Hoyer was a British body construction company that mainly produced standardized bodies for mid-range vehicles in the 1920s. The company later renamed Hoyal Body Corporation or Hoyal Bodybuilding Corporation . A number of successor companies existed until the 1940s.

Company history

Chalmer & Hoyer was founded in 1921 by HW Allingham, M. Chalmer and H. Hamilton Hoyer. At the same time, Hoyer had his own body shop called HHH until 1925 , which was closely linked to the manufacturer De Dion-Bouton . Chalmer & Hoyer was initially based in Poole in the southern English county of Dorset , and in 1924 another location was added south of London in Weybridge ( Surrey ).

Series manufacturer

Morris Oxford Landaulette with body by Chalmer & Hoyer (1926)

The company specialized early on in the series production of standardized superstructures that were supplied to various chassis manufacturers. In contrast, Chalmer & Hoyer only produced individual bodies tailored to customer requirements in exceptional cases. First and foremost, these were closed two- and four-door bodies, which were among the more recent developments at the time. In the 1920s, closed vehicles were usually more expensive than vehicles with fabric tops (e.g. Phaetons ); Chalmer & Hoyer managed to achieve comparatively low prices through standardization. Some of these superstructures were sold directly as factory bodies, and some were included in the factory catalogs as Chalmer & Hoyer special versions in addition to the regular bodies. Since the mid-1920s, Chalmer & Hoyer had also been offering bodies covered with artificial leather based on the Weymann patent .

Starting in 1925, Chalmer & Hoyer supplied factory-offered sedans and landaulets for the Morris Oxford and the Austin 12 . As part of this contract, the company's workforce at both locations grew to a total of 700 employees; During this time, the company produced up to 120 bodies per week. At the end of 1926, however, there was a collapse: After Morris had founded Pressed Steel, its own body manufacturer integrated into the plant, it did not extend its relationship with Chalmer & Hoyer.

Hoyal

American Star 1440 with a Hoyal coupé body

In 1926 Chalmer & Hoyer renamed the Hoyal Body Corporation. The name was composed of the first letters of the surnames of Hoyer and Allingham. Hoyal first tried to replace the expired Morris contract with orders from other manufacturers; The company did not succeed in doing this. In order to utilize its capacities, it turned to the construction of buses; in the plants in Poole also temporarily created speedboats . Since 1928, Hoyal has also manufactured individual superstructures on customer request, with chassis from different manufacturers being clad by MG , Wolseley or Star . After two years of losses, the company was insolvent in August 1931; it was resolved.

successor

After the collapse of Hoyal, some former employees founded the body manufacturer John Charles & Co. , which started operations in February 1932 with some of the Hoyal equipment in new premises in London. Charles only existed for three years; in the spring of 1935 the company was insolvent. Former employees then went into business for themselves with the London company Ranalah ; they used a name under which John Charles & Co. had already marketed some bodies. During World War II, Ranalah produced metal components for aircraft; After the end of the war, the company was bought up and linked to the established bodywork manufacturer Gurney Nutting .

literature

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

Web link

Commons : Chalmer & Hoyer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Hoyal  - collection of images, videos and audio files