Abbey Panels Ltd., originally The Abbey Panel & Sheet Metal Co. Ltd., was a Warwickshire-based
coachbuilding
A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...
company founded on Abbey Road,
Nuneaton in 1941, initially assembling
Supermarine Spitfires
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Gri ...
for the ongoing war effort. The original partners were Edward Loades, Les Bean, Bill Woodhall and Ernie Wilkinson.
As the business grew they expanded to Old Church Road, Coventry before having their main manufacturing plant on the well known Bayton Road Industrial Estate in Exhall. In 1967,
[ Ted Loades listed the business on the ]London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pa ...
(LSE) and it became known as Loades PLC, with Abbey Panels its main brand, alongside Albany Zinc (castings
In metalworking and jewelry making, casting is a process in which a liquid metal is delivered into a mold (usually by a crucible) that contains a negative impression (i.e., a three-dimensional negative image) of the intended shape. The metal i ...
), Loades Dynamics ( machining) and Loades Design ( automotive styling) (previously known as Descartes Design).
The company specialised in producing handmade prototype car bodies and did so for many notable car companies including: Bristol Cars
Bristol Cars were manufacturers of hand-built luxury cars headquartered in Bristol, England. After being placed in receivership and being taken over in 2011, it entered liquidation in February 2020.
After the Second World War, the car division ...
, Lea Francis, Jaguar Cars, Rover
Rover may refer to:
People
* Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian
* Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer
* Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist
Places
* Rover, Arkansas, US
* Rover, Missouri, U ...
, MG, Healey, Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated ...
, Buick
Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...
, Lincoln, Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
and BMW amongst others. They fashioned the bodywork of cars such as the Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le ...
winning Ford GT40, numerous Jaguars
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the t ...
( XK120, C-type, D-type, E-type, XJ13, XJ220, XK180), the original Mark I
Mark I or Mark 1 often refers to the first version of a weapon or military vehicle, and is sometimes used in a similar fashion in civilian product development. In some instances, the Arabic numeral "1" is substituted for the Roman numeral "I". ...
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rove ...
Station Wagon, Jim Clark's Lotus 38 and Stirling Moss's 1957 Pescara Grand Prix winning Vanwall
Vanwall was a motor racing team and racing car constructor that was active in Formula One during the 1950s. Founded by Tony Vandervell, the Vanwall name was derived by combining the name of the team owner with that of his Thinwall bearings ...
. They also produced many specialist parts for the aerospace industry, particularly for Rolls-Royce plc
Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for ...
, such as the Rolls-Royce Pegasus
The Rolls-Royce Pegasus, formerly the Bristol Siddeley Pegasus, is a British turbofan engine originally designed by Bristol Siddeley. It was manufactured by Rolls-Royce plc. The engine is not only able to power a jet aircraft forward, but als ...
engine duct of the Harrier jump jet
The Harrier, informally referred to as the Harrier jump jet, is a family of jet-powered attack aircraft capable of vertical/short takeoff and landing operations (V/STOL). Named after a bird of prey, it was originally developed by British m ...
.
In 2002 the company stopped much of its manufacturing and began a phased closure of the Abbey Panels plant in Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...
. They continued to run their aerospace engineering and machining company for some time, and refocused their efforts on redeveloping their industrial properties.
Gallery
File:AP Autocar 2.jpeg, An advert in 'The Autocar' (1956).
File:Abbey panels jaguar le mans 1957.jpg, 'The Autocar' advert (1957).
File:Abbey Panel and Sheet Metal Co..jpg, Abbey Panel and Sheet Metal Co. factory on Bayton Road.
File:All-aluminium Bristol convertible coachwork by Abbey Panels.jpg, Bristol 402 Roadster (1949).
File:Bill Woodall Vanwall Streamliner Abbey Panels.jp
Founder Bill Woodhall sat in a Vanwall VW6 Streamliner at Abbey Panels (c.1956).
File:GT40 bonnet at Abbey Panels.tif, Ford GT40 bonnet at Abbey Panels (1960s).
File:XJ13 at Abbey Panels with Tony Loades.jpg, Rebuilding the XJ13 (c. early 1970s).
File:RollsRoycePhantomMajestic-AbbeyPanels.jpg, Sultan of Brunei
The sultan of Brunei is the monarchical head of state of Brunei and head of government in his capacity as prime minister of Brunei. Since independence from the British in 1984, only one sultan has reigned, though the royal institution dates ba ...
's Rolls-Royce Phantom Majestic (1990s).
File:Ftype-Loades-Scheele.jpg, Ted Loades with Ford COO, Sir Nick Scheele
Sir Nicholas Vernon Scheele KCMG (3 January 1944 – 18 July 2014) was an English business executive who served as president, from 2001–05, and Chief Operating Officer (COO), from 2001–04, of the Ford Motor Company, and also as Chancellor of ...
and Jaguar XK180
References
External links
*
{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom
Companies based in Warwickshire
1941 establishments in England
Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom