Martin-Walter was a long established, 1773, firm of harness makers in

Folkestone, Kent Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

which switched to building bespoke bodies for motor cars when horse-drawn vehicles began to disappear. As well as bespoke bodies they built short runs for various motor manufacturers. In the

Great depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

of the 1930s they made very distinctive Wingham cabriolet bodies which were fitted to a range of chassis from large Vauxhall to Rolls-Royce. After the Second World War they built ambulance bodies and in particular conversions of Bedford vans, "a bedroom on wheels", and other Vauxhall products as well as Austin and Volkswagen Kombi vans. Martin Walter was distributor of Vauxhall and

Bedford Vehicles Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a brand of vehicle manufactured by Vauxhall Motors, then a subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. Established in April 1931, Bedford Vehicles was set up to build comme ...

for East Kent. A separate coachbuilding company was incorporated in 1969 and named

Dormobile Dormobile is a 1950s-era onwards campervan (motorcaravan, motorhome) conversion manufactured by the coachbuilder Martin Walter of Folkestone in Kent. Initially based on the Bedford CA van, the name is associated more with those and subsequen ...

after its best-known postwar product,. Martin Walter's business was subsumed in Chatfields-Martin Walter motor group.Charringtons Contract Hire, ''Commercial Motor'', page 27, 13 August 1987

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Bristol Harbourside 2015 - Badgerline 4511 (C511BFB)

Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom Folkestone

Recreational vehicle manufacturers {{motorvehicle-company-stub