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 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 P ...

(LSE) and it became known as Loades PLC, with Abbey Panels its main brand, alongside Albany Zinc ( castings), 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,

Lea Francis Lea-Francis was a British motor manufacturing company that began by building bicycles. History R. H. Lea and G. I. Francis started the business in Coventry in 1895. They branched out into car manufacturing in 1903 and motorcycles in 1911. Le ...

, 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, US ...

, 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 in ...

, Buick,

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

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and BMW amongst others. They fashioned the bodywork of cars such as the Le Mans winning

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

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 thi ...

( 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". " ...

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Station Wagon, Jim Clark's

Lotus 38 The Lotus 38 was the first rear-engined car to win the Indianapolis 500, in 1965, driven by Jim Clark. It was run by Lotus at Indianapolis from 1965 to 1967; a total of 8 were built, most for use by Lotus, but several were sold for use by othe ...

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 also ...

engine duct of the

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. 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 b ...

. 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's

Rolls-Royce Phantom Rolls-Royce has used the Phantom name on full-sized luxury cars over the past century: *Rolls-Royce Phantom I, 1925–1931 *Rolls-Royce Phantom II, 1929–1936 *Rolls-Royce Phantom III, 1936–1939 *Rolls-Royce Phantom IV, 1950&ndash ...

Majestic (1990s). File:Ftype-Loades-Scheele.jpg, Ted Loades with Ford COO, Sir Nick Scheele and Jaguar XK180 concept (1997).

References

External links

* {{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Companies based in Warwickshire 1941 establishments in England Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom