Tickford (Coachbuilders)

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Salmons & Sons
Tickford
legal form Limited Company
founding 1820
Seat Newport Pagnell , UK
Branch Body shop

Tickford was a British manufacturer of carriages and automobile bodies, originally trading as Salmons & Sons . In the period between the world wars, the company was one of the most successful coachbuilders in Great Britain. In 1955 it was taken over by the sports car manufacturer Aston Martin , who then made Tickford's Newport Pagnell plant the location of its operations. At the turn of the millennium, the brand name Tickford was part of the Ford group. It has been used in connection with various projects in the automotive supplier industry since the 1990s.

Company history

Salmons & Sons

Daimler Straight 8 Tickford Convertible by Salmons & Sons (1936)
MG VA Tickford Drophead Coupe by Salmons & Sons (1936)

The company was founded in Newport Pagnell in 1820 as Salmons & Sons by Joseph Salmons. In the first 80 years of its existence, Salmons only produced carriages. From 1898 the company shifted its activity to the manufacture of automobile bodies.

Even before the First World War , it became a specialist in so-called all-weather structures. These were vehicles with a folding top, which when closed offered increased weather protection. In contrast to the tourers or Phaetons that were common at the time, the top was lined with a thicker lining , and the all-weather superstructures had side windows made of glass that could be sunk into the doors to open the vehicle or removed and otherwise accommodated in special devices in the vehicles . All-weatherers were considered complex constructions. They were significantly more expensive than Tourers, Phaetons or Roadsters.

After the First World War, Salmons developed a mechanism that made it easier to open the convertible top, which was previously very laborious. A system of chains and gear wheels controlled by a hand crank made it easier to open and close the convertible top. Salmons called this system Tickford and called the cars equipped with it the All-Weather Saloon . The system was introduced in 1925, and from 1926 Salmons designed such bodies for chassis of any origin. A cheaper version were the so-called Sunshine Saloons , in which the side windows, the door frames and the roof pillars were firmly connected to the body and only the upper part of the roof over the passenger compartment could be folded back or rolled down. According to today's understanding, this construction corresponds to the convertible sedan . Salmons offered Sunshine Saloons from 1928.

Tickford models were very popular from 1926 to around 1936. In the 1920s, Salmons produced vehicles individually on customer request ("bespoke"). As a result of economic difficulties at the end of the 1920s, Salmons also established connections with British automobile manufacturers from 1929 onwards, for whom it manufactured standardized bodies (“contractor work”). These bodies have often been included in the manufacturers' official works catalogs. Salmons produced Sunshine Saloons for Armstrong-Siddeley , MG Rover , Talbot , Vauxhall and Wolseley during this time . In 1940 one last contract with Rover ran out. During the Second World War , Salmons did not make any bodies.

Tickford

Tickford body: Alvis Gray Lady
Healey Tickford Saloon
Lagonda 2.6 Liter Drophead Saloon

In 1942, Salmons, which until then had been a family business, was taken over by the British industrialist Ian Irvine Boswell. Boswell renamed the company Tickford Ltd. around. After the end of the war, Tickford converted military vehicles into civilian automobiles on behalf of the British government. At the same time, the company continued to manufacture individual superstructures for customer chassis, but also continued to enter into contracts with manufacturers for standardized special superstructures. Tickford manufactured a series of convertibles for the Daimler DB 18 and the Alvis TA 14 . However, these constructions were no longer equipped with the Tickford mechanism. Woodie- style station wagons for chassis from Humber were also created .

From 1950 to 1954 there was a close contractual relationship between Tickford and Donald Healey . For his automobile manufacturer Donald Healey Motor Company , Tickford manufactured the body superstructures for the Healey 2.4 liter Tickford Saloon . The model clad in Newport Pagnell replaced the 2.4 liter Elliott and Duncan sedan versions that had been built since 1945 and 1946, which were quite similar in style. At the same time as Tickford, Abbott of Farnham took over the construction of the convertible version. Depending on the source, 225 to 400 copies were made of the Tickford Saloon. Tickford also built the prototype of the Austin-Healey 100 , which was later mass-produced at Jensen .

In 1948 Tickford received its first order from David Brown, a British entrepreneur who had recently taken over the sports car manufacturers Aston Martin and Lagonda . Tickford initially produced some of the standard bodies designed by Frank Feeley for the Lagonda 2.6 liter for Brown . From 1952 onwards, all Lagonda bodies were made at Tickford; this also applied to the 3 liter introduced in 1954 . At the same time, Tickford built around 40 of the Bristol 405 Drophead Coupé as a subcontractor for Abbott of Farnham .

At the beginning of the 1950s, the landscape of the British automotive and bodywork industries changed. The reason for this was the fact that the US American Ford group, in order to forestall its competitor Chrysler , had taken over the previously independent body manufacturer Briggs Motor Bodies , based in Dagenham , in 1953 and Briggs was then exclusively tied to Ford. That started a chain reaction. The competing with Ford, Austin and Morris comprehensive British Motor Corporation then took the body manufacturer Fisher & Ludlow , who previously many bodies for Standard had made, after which the standard, the company Mulliners of Birmingham tape itself. Since Daimler had taken over Carbodies at the same time , the supply of car bodies for small automobile manufacturers such as Alvis, Aston Martin and Lagonda was increasingly at risk. With this in mind, David Brown bought the Tickford plant in December 1954.

A year later, Aston Martin moved automobile manufacturing from the London borough of Feltham to the Tickford plants in Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire. Production remained there until 2007; since then Aston Martin has been manufacturing in Gaydon in Warwickshire . After the move to Gaydon, the old factories in Newport Pagnell were largely demolished.

With the takeover by Aston Martin, the name Tickford was no longer used for two decades.

Independent successor company

Aston Martin Tickford

In 1981, Aston Martin revived the Tickford brand name. With Aston Martin Tickford , a new company was founded that had no legal relationship with the previous body manufacturer. Aston Martin Tickford was part of CH Industrials plc. and was physically separated from Aston Martin in Milton Keynes and Bedworth . The company offered exclusive small series based on contemporary volume models, but also carried out individual work for Aston Martin itself.

Tickford Capri (1986)

The Aston Martin Tickford was produced as a small series product

  • the Tickford Capri based on the Ford Capri with turbo engine, body parts and upgraded interior; Depending on the source, 85 or 100 copies were made.
  • the Tickford Metro based on the Austin Metro with additional body parts and modified, high-quality interior fittings,
  • the Tickford Carbodies Taxi as an extended version of the Austin FX4 with more space in the passenger compartment and more luxurious equipment.

From 1984 Aston Martin Tickford also built particularly luxurious versions of the wedge-shaped Aston Martin Lagonda on customer request . The scope of delivery included the front and side skirts, which were mostly painted in the same color as the car, as well as two separate televisions. Some examples also had an extended wheelbase. The Tickford Lagonda cost £ 85,000. Five pieces were sold.

Technology company

In 1990, CH Industrials went bankrupt. The management carried out a management buy-out and continued to run and Tickford independently in the period that followed. In 1991 Tickford entered into a joint venture with Ford Australia and through Tickford Vehicle Engineering and Ford Tickford Experience (FTE) became a high-performance Ford brand on the local market. In 2001 Prodrive took over the company and renamed it Ford Performance Vehicles . In 2013 parts of the company were sold to Intertek . Since then there have been attempts to re-establish the Tickford name in the UK and Asia.

literature

  • Andrew Noakes: Aston Martin fascination . Parragon, Bath 2006, ISBN 978-1-40547-900-4 .
  • William Presland: Aston Martin V8 . Crowood Press 2009. ISBN 978-1-84797 066-4
  • Rainer Schlegelmilch, Hartmut Lehbrinck, Jochen von Osterroth: Aston Martin . Verlag Könemann 2005. ISBN 3-8331-1058-9 .
  • Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 .
  • Jonathan Wood: Aston Martin DB4, DB5 and DB6: The Complete Story , The Crowood Press Ltd (August 3, 2000), ISBN 9781861263308
  • Andrew Whyte: The Aston Martin and Lagonda. Volume 1: Six-cylinder DB models . Motor Racing Publications, London 1984, ISBN 0900549831 .

Web links

Commons : Salmons & Son  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Tickford Coachwork  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Nick Walker: AZ of British Coachbuilders 1919-1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 169.
  2. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 210.
  3. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 170.
  4. ^ A b Jonathan Wood: Aston Martin DB4, DB5 and DB6: The Complete Story , The Crowood Press Ltd (August 3, 2000), ISBN 9781861263308 , p. 39.
  5. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 171.
  6. ↑ Roger Gloor: All Cars of the 50s, 1945-1960 . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart. 1st edition 2007. ISBN 978-3-613-02808-1 , p. 178 f.
  7. ↑ Michael Palmer: Bristol Cars Model by Model , Crowood, 2015, ISBN 978-1-78500-077-5 , p. 81.
  8. ↑ Description of the Tickford Capri on the website www.a400mod.com (accessed on June 19, 2016)
  9. ↑ a b c Auto Catalogs 1984 to 1987, Vereinigte Motor Verlage, Stuttgart (1984 and 1985 listed under Aston Martin, then listed under Aston Martin Tickford).
  10. ^ The Tickford Metro on the Tickford Owners Club website (accessed June 19, 2016).
  11. ↑ William Presland: Aston Martin V8 . Crowood Press 2009. ISBN 978-1-84797 066-4 , pp. 67 f.