Gordon England was a British coachbuilding company based in

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

, South West London and later in the Palace of Industry,

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, North London with a showroom at 28 South Molton Street, Mayfair, London W1.

Gordon England

E. C. Gordon England, after beginning an engineering apprenticeship with Great Northern Railway in Doncaster, changed to aviation and went on to pilot and design both gliders and powered aircraft and was works manager at

Bristol Aeroplane Company The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable a ...

during World War I. After that war he raced cars and also developed and patented lightweight car bodies.

Lightweight bodies for cars

Palace of Industry British Empire Exhibition 1924 2

After the war his interest turned to motor racing and in 1922 he obtained a chassis version of the new Austin 7 which he tuned and entered successfully at several events. This led him to make and sell a series of cars to the public based on his racers. He believed that car performance was being held back by the heavy coachwork being fitted to many models and set about designing bodies largely of plywood covered with fabric and fixed to the chassis with three rubber mountings. To make these George England (Motor Bodies) Ltd was incorporated in 1925.

Construction

Gordon England took four years to develop his own construction technique using a solid plywood shell without Weymann's skeletal frame. His seats and floorboards were mounted directly onto the chassis, as was the scuttle and instrument panel. The body was given a hollow box-girder of plywood around its base and attached to the frame at three points. This way the body on its three separate mounting points was able to maintain its shape even over rough roads.R J Wyatt, ''The Austin 1905—1952'', David & Charles, Newton Abbott, 1981.

Austin

The first model to be sold was the ''Brooklands'' Super-sports Austin 7 and although his racing version had been fabric covered the production version was aluminium panelled. Each one was supplied with a certificate stating that it would attain 80 mph (130 km/h). The "Cup" model followed in 1925 and then a fabric saloon which came out before the official factory version. In 1927 almost 20,000 bodies were supplied for the Austin 7. Work extended beyond Austin and in 1925 a

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 ...

was fitted followed by work on

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North ...

s, MG,

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and Wolseley. The Putney premises were outgrown and in 1927 the company moved to Wembley and exhibited at the London Olympia Motor Show with an Invicta on the stand. The company was reformed as Gordon England (1929) Ltd and claimed to be making 35 bodies a day. However, the fabric body started to lose out to all-metal types, the company's fortunes declined and in 1930 it closed. File:1926 Austin 7 GE Brooklands Replica 3926178863.jpg, ''Brooklands'' Super-sports
1926 1928 Austin 7 GE Sunshine Saloon 1.1.jpg, ''Sunshine'' saloon
1928 1928 Austin 7 Gordon England Sunshine Saloon 3968026367.jpg, first Austin Seven saloon 1929 Austin 7 Gordon England Stadium 3973404311.jpg, ''Stadium'' 2-seater
1929 1929 Austin 7 Gordon England Wembley Saloon 3987677274.jpg, ''Wembley'' saloon
1929 1929 Austin 7 Gordon England Wembley Saloon 3987677014.jpg

First road test in history

The weekly magazine '' Autocar'' claims to have invented the road test. Its very first published test in 1928 was of an Austin 7 (Gordon) England ''Sunshine'' saloon, Sunshine because it had a very large sunroof.

References

Old Framlinghamians
* A-Z of British Coachbuilders. Nick Walker. Bay View Books. 1997.

External links

Autocar tests another Austin 7

{{DEFAULTSORT:England Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom Vehicle manufacture in London