Coachcraft

Coachcraft Ltd. University Coachwork Ltd.
legal form	Limited Company
founding	1934
resolution	1960s
Seat	London , UK
management	Percy Twigg Geoffrey Durtnal
Branch	Body shop

Coachcraft Ltd. was a British manufacturer of automobile bodies who worked primarily for Railton and the British Delage importer in the 1930s . After the end of the Second World War , the company changed its name to University Coachwork and remained active as a manufacturer of commercial vehicle bodies through a subsidiary until the 1960s.

Company history

Coachcraft

Railton Straight Eight University Saloon by Coachcraft (1935)

Delage D6-70 with Coachcraft body (1937)

A 1938 Rolls-Royce 20/25 (chassis from 1930) redesigned by Coachcraft for the Southern Motor Company

Rolls-Royce Phantom I (1929) with a new Sports Saloon body from Coachcraft

Coachcraft Ltd. was founded in 1934 by Percy Twigg (1900-1958), a former employee of the bodywork manufacturer Windover and Motorbodies . The financing was taken over by his business partner O'Neill Butler. The company was based in Hanwell in the Ealing district of London . Coachcraft took over the plant from the body shop Arrow Coachworks , which had been dissolved shortly before after insolvency.

In the first few years, Coachcraft specialized in the production of standardized structures in small series. The most important customer was the Railton brand from Cobham in Surrey , founded in 1933 , which manufactured chassis using imported components from Hudson and Terraplane . The bodies were mostly designed by the designer Geoffrey Durtnal, who at the beginning of his work for Coachcraft had spent a few weeks at the Parisian body manufacturer Chapron . His work was therefore said to have "a certain French style". Coachcraft initially designed and built the Fairmile convertibles and the Stratton Saloon limousines for Railton . In 1935, the London automobile dealer University Motors commissioned Coachcraft for a series of sedans with a special body, which were sold as the University Saloon . In 1937 Coachcraft finally took over the construction of the Cobham Saloons for Railton chassis, the bodies of which were originally made at Carbodies in Coventry . Coachcraft also produced bodies for chassis from Hudson, Terraplane, Delage and Rolls-Royce to a much lesser extent in the second half of the 1930s .

Railton was known for choosing body suppliers primarily based on cost considerations. This forced Coachcraft to manufacture the bodies as cheaply as possible. The constant cost pressure soon endangered the company's existence. In 1937 Coachcraft was almost insolvent. However, through the establishment of a new business relationship with the London-based Southern Motor Company , the closure of the company was ultimately prevented. Southern's business model was to re-clad older chassis from Rolls-Royce and similar high-end manufacturers with newly designed bodies. It enabled customers to drive contemporary-looking cars without actually having to buy a completely new car. In order to lower the price of the new body, in many cases the old body was not removed; Instead, it was built over with the new body. From 1938 Coachcraft took over the technical implementation of this work as a subcontractor for the Southern Motor Company.

The outbreak of the Second World War ended the body production at Coachcraft. During the war, the company produced individual parts for gunboats .

University coachwork

In 1946 the London automobile dealer University Motors took over the coachcraft business. The company then renamed University Coachwork. Percy Twigg left the company a little later, whereupon the previous designer Geoffrey Durtnal took over the management. Under his leadership, University tried to regain a foothold in the body shop, but could not establish itself permanently. In the late 1940s, the company rebuilt a number of Railtons based on pre-war chassis using body panels that had been stored during the clashes. In addition, a prototype was created for a new Railton, which was not produced in series, as well as a convertible based on the Bristol 400 .

Around 1950 University Coachwork relocated to the community of Egham, south of London. The company specialized in body repairs. In the previous factory premises in Hanwell, on the other hand, a split-off section established itself as University Commercials, which produced commercial vehicle bodies until the 1960s.

literature

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

Web links

Commons : Coachcraft  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 , Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 97.
2. ^ Collection of images of Coachcraft bodies for Delage (accessed April 10, 2020).
3. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 173.
4. ^ ^{A b} Nick Walker: AZ of British Coachbuilders 1919-1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 177.
5. ↑ Illustration of the 1948 sales advertisement for the University-Bristol (accessed April 10, 2020).