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spent his working life both in and around many of the companies
included in this book. Unfortunately he suffered a major stroke at the
age of thirty-four. After a period of recovery and rehabilitation, he
began the next phase of his life working at his own pace on his own
smallholding.
Pe t e r Mo r r e y
MOTORING IN THE
LAST 100 YEARS, THE
WOLVERHAMPTON
WAY
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2015)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LB
Acknowledgments
Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies, for photos and information.
John Meadows, for photographs, drawings and specification information on
Henry Meadows Ltd and Meadows Frisky.
John Favill, for his working experience, photographs and specification
information on Meadows, Villiers Engineering and Norton Villiers.
John Drewett, for his working experience, photographs and specification
information on Meadows.
Roy Dumbell, a member of the family of Turner Manufacturing companys
founder, and the chairman and managing director until the 1980s, and Larry
Hopkins, assistant chief engineer until recently, for their working experience,
photographs and specification information on Turner Manufacturing.
Peter Tutthill, for providing photos, drawings, and some text with regard to
Keift Racing Cars, Turner Sports Cars, Meadows Frisky and Raymond Flower.
The late Jack Turner, for his working experience, photographs and
specification information on Turner Sports Cars Also Russ Filby and Brian
Shaw, for extra information and photographs and help with Turner Sports Cars.
Keith Peckmore, for his working experience, photographs and specification
information on Keift Racing Cars and Meadows Frisky.
The late Peter Radcliff for an enormous amount of help with his wealth of
knowledge on diesel engines, and photos of his Fowler Challenger crawler
tractor, with Meadows power.
JDHT for their help in providing photos of SS Cars and Jaguar Cars.
The late Norman Cliff, a personal friend, for his working experience with
the Experimental and Racing department of Sunbeam Cars.
Black Country Museum and helpers in providing photos and drawings.
Robert Jones, a cousin, for providing me plenty of facts, and a loan of my
grandfathers book Sunbeam Cars up until 1924.
Mike Ridley, for providing his grandfather J.V. Ridleys references to
Sunbeam Cars including his work sheets and documents.
The late Tony Morrey, brother, with all his memories and his letter from
Bob Roberts, the late owner of the Sunbeam Tiger, and the late Paul Morrey
with his photo of the same car and other photos.
Alan Richens and all members of STD Register for their help in providing
photos and specification information of Sunbeam cars.
Daimler Lanchester Owners Club, for providing information and photos of
Daimler cars.
The Montague Motor Museum, for photos of Sunbeam and various other
cars.
PREFACE
This book looks at motoring in the last hundred years from two viewpoints. One
is that of the end user such as my own family with their private and commercial
experiences. The other is about the formation and life of at least five companies
that have made Wolverhampton a great place to be at during the last hundred
odd years of the motoring industrys history. For example: Sunbeam Motor Car
Company Ltd, Villiers Engineering Ltd, Turner Manufacturing Co. Ltd, Guy
Motors Ltd and Henry Meadows Ltd. I have a particular interest in these partly
because of where I was born and raised, namely Wolverhampton, partly because
of family and friends who have worked in and around these companies, but
mainly because of the pleasure that I have always found in anything to do with
engines, cars, trucks, buses and tractors. Also, although engines are central to
the history of motoring, I have occasionally digressed into some of their other
applications. I hope you find the book as interesting and informative as I have
found the research done to produce it. I would also like to take this opportunity
to thank all the people who have assisted me in this process you know who
you are.
1.
My father Eric, and his elder brother Bob, with their widowed mother Daisy,
had moved into the Turf Tavern at Penn Common, Wolverhampton at the tail
end of 1913. My real grandfather Arthur Morrey, with Daisy and two children,
had been the licencee from 1905, of a public house at Floodgate Street in
Digbeth, Birmingham. But he had become desperately ill with consumption, and
died. Within two weeks, the owners of the pub, Holt Breweries, terminated the
tenancy, and evicted Daisy and her two children along with their few chattels.
So she came back to Wolverhampton crestfallen and in tears, worried that she
would become a person with no money, and forced into the 'workhouse' at
Trysull. She spent the next few days arranging for Bob to stay with George, his
grandfather, and for Eric to stay with her sister in the centre of the town. She
then got a job within the trade, as a barmaid at the Shakespeare public house in
Queen Street, Wolverhampton; this would tide her over the shortage of money.
Her next port of call was to West End Brewery, who owned the Shakespeare,
enquiring as to whether they would have any small public houses, or ale houses
to let. This was with a view to her becoming a tenant, as she had a few years
valuable experience of being the wife of the licensee at a city centre pub in
Birmingham.
Daisy was offered the tenancy of the small public house, brewery owned,
which was called the Turf Tavern Inn. The Inn had been the drinking and eating
establishment catering for the gentle people of the horse racing fraternity. There
was a nearby pool, constantly fed by a stream, which provided watering for
horses which ran on the well known horse racing track, dating back to 1680. The
horse racing track was in the centre of Penn Common, and belonged to His
Grace The Duke of Sutherland.
Turf Tavern, at Turf Cottages, Penn Common, around 1900, (By courtesy of
Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies)
Three boys on a horse taken in 1915 at Arthur Collins farm. The centre one is
Eric Morrey, on his left is his elder brother Bob, on the right is his younger step
brother Frank Collins; holding the reins is his stepfather Arthur
At the age of sixteen Eric was taken on by John Fellows (Engineers) Ltd of
Wolverhampton, as an apprentice, where he spent seven years, for the main part,
filing parts or castings, or being a go for this, that and the other for the
engineers. He had to do various jobs on his stepfathers farm before 7.30 a.m. in
the morning, and after 5.30 p.m. in the evening. This involved such jobs as
being the milkman before breakfast, with the pony and milk float. We will
return to my father later on.
2.
In 1901 the second Sunbeam car was designed on a similar principle, being
a Sunbeam modified Panhard of a nominal 6 h.p., with the body styled by
Forders. At this time the horizontal prime mover was installed in a chassis,
where it was fitted with an extra belt and a reverse gear. The complete car was
wholly British built, with the sole exception of the accumulators.
1903 saw the 12 hp Sunbeam car launched onto the market by John Marston
Ltd. It was said by The Automotor Journal, that it was particularly interesting,
when describing the Sunbeam 12 hp, at the last show at the Crystal Palace
exhibition, to find such an exceptionally fine finish to the carriage work on this
vehicle. The Automotor Journal had recently paid a visit to the Company's
works at Wolverhampton, and found that they had been extended to cope with
the demand for this larger vehicle, as well as for their already well-known
Mabley cars, which they had done so well within the past. The Company were
by now manufacturing the greater part of their Sunbeam cars themselves. They
did not however make the engines themselves at that time, but selected a wellmade Berliet-based engine, which they subjected to a careful testing before
fitting. A large number of the 12 hp vehicles were in course of construction
during their visit. The cars were made on thoroughly well known lines, the main
frame being built of ash and steel. The engine and the change-speed-gear were
carried upon a separate underframe, which was made out of angle steel of
unusual section.
A light sheet of metal casing entirely enclosed the engine and gearbox on
the underside, and this was rendered dustproof in front by a leather strap which
could be let down in order to inspect the commutator or other parts of the
engine. The engine had four cylinders cast in pairs; they had a bore of 33/16 ins.,
and the stroke was 411/16 ins. The normal speed was 800 revolutions per minute,
and its range of speed was from 100 to 1,000 r.p.m. The inlet valves were
atmospherically operated, and so were arranged that they could be removed
without disconnecting the pipe leading from the carburettor. It was only
necessary to unscrew a plug above either of the valves in order to lift it out,
complete with its seat. The cam-shaft operating the exhaust valves was enclosed
in the crank chamber, and a centrifugal governor and commutator were mounted
on its forward end. The carburettor was of the Company's own special design
and was in general respects similar to others of the float-feed spray type. The
throttle-valve formed part of it, and was of a cylindrical plunger form. It was
connected with the governor and was inter-connected with an accelerator foot
pedal and with a hand-lever on the steering pillar, which regulated the normal
speed. The timing of ignition could also be regulated from a lever on the
steering wheel.
The engine was lubricated by a belt-driven mechanical lubricator on the
dashboard. Four separate exhaust pipes led to an exhaust box placed alongside
the engine, and the burnt gases were allowed to escape through a pipe passing to
the back of the car. The cylinders were water-cooled and a centrifugal pump was
used for circulating the water around them, and through the radiator in front of
the bonnet.
The 1904 Crystal Palace Motor Show saw Sunbeam exhibiting a model of
the 12-16 hp four cylinder, and also a new six-cylinder, cast in three rows of
two-cylinders each.
In 1905 Percy Jones left Daimler, and went to work for Thomas Cureton the
General Manager of Sunbeam Motor Car Company Ltd, as the Manager of the
seating and leather work department. Sidney Slater Guy was appointed by
Sunbeam's Board of Directors, to be Works Manager; originally he had been the
Works Manager of Humber Motors of Coventry.
Percy and Agnes Jones were my grandparents on my maternal side. They
were provided with a company owned house on the road from Wolverhampton
to Penn, and he was fetched by car each working day, which shows you how
much they thought of him. He made seats to fit any customer, and also for all the
racing cars, and the special cars used for world record attempts by professional
drivers.
The six-cylinder 20-30 hp Sunbeam of 1907 was an extremely high priced
car. It comprised an overhead valve monobloc engine, cardan drive shaft, four
wheel braking, and was electrically lit. The five seater touring car version had an
electric starter, electric horn, adjustable windscreen, one-man operated hood
with side curtains and a spare wheel, all for 950. But the new (for 1908) fourcylinder Sunbeam was rated at 35 hp, and sold in chassis form for a more
moderate 620; but with a limousine body called the Laundaulette it was priced
at 842. When I say that Sunbeams were an extremely high priced car, we have
to bear in mind that the average working wage at that time for the ordinary
worker was approximately 2 shillings and 6 pence per day, pre-decimalisation
money (now 17 pence per day), for blacksmiths or similar it was approximately
5 shillings and 10 pence per day, (now 29 pence per day), and an engine driver
at the head of a colliery pit would earn approximately 6 shillings and 6 pence
per day, (now 33 pence per day, or 1.78 for a five and a half day week). So, a
man with a highly paid job, like the engine driver, would take 533 weeks, or
nearly ten years, without any other expenses, to buy a six-cylinder Sunbeam car;
thus leaving the cars for company directors or independently wealthy men.
It was Thomas Cureton, the managing director of Sunbeam Motor Car
Company, whose business acumen achieved a brilliant stroke by securing the
services of Louis Herve Coatalen in February 1909 as Chief Engineer. Coatalen
was born in the Breton fishing port of Concarneau in 1879, his mother ran a
small hotel there, his father built a workshop and forge nearby.
He attended the Department of Finistere in 1895 or thereabout. His training
as an engineer at the Gadzarts, the Ecole des Arts et Mtiers, was a good
preparation and initiation into the serious mathematical side of life; it took three
hard years. He found work at the drawing offices of Panhard, Clement, De Dion
Bouton, Levasser and Darraq where he acquired invaluable experience with the
French and German motor enterprises, which were at that time leading the world
in automobile engineering, design and building. In 1900 he came to work for
Charles Crowden of H.J. Lawsons British Motor Syndicate, leaving a few
months later when he joined the Humber Company as chief engineer in 1901.
The financial situation of Humber of Coventry was failing with the passing of
the bicycle trade, and was seeking to establish itself as a proper motor car
manufacturer. He designed the 10-12 hp Coventry Humber car, restoring the
company to prosperity. For it was the first four-cylinder, live axle, British made,
middle size vehicle to be sold at about 300. The demand for it being so great,
A Short 184 at Queensborough in June 1917, fitted with a Sunbeam 260 hp Mauri
1,fitted with an experimental honeycomb radiator, as shown in Shorts Aircraft
since 1900 by C.H. Barnes.
A promising new alternative engine had been brought into the aircraft
industry in 1915, that being the Sunbeam-Coatalen Aero Engine with a 150 hp
V8 water-cooled engine named the Nubian. Its makers, John Marston & Sons
Ltd of Wolverhampton, operating as Sunbeam Motor Car Company took the two
banks of their 3-litre Grand Prix car racing engine, and constructed a lower
crankcase cover and made aV8 aero-engine. They then installed it in a Maurice
Farman aircraft, which was flown for long periods at Brooklands by Jack
Alcock during the summer of 1913. Having demonstrated its reliability it was
then adopted by the Admiralty as the Nubian.
The smaller of the Short seaplanes was modified to take the SunbeamCoatalen engine, and its performance was enhanced by an extra 15 hp, at the
same weight as the previously fitted Salmson engine. The name of Salmson
comes from Commander Charles Salmson, of the Royal Naval Air Services,
who was to prove to be one of the great innovators of the war. He had been the
first man to launch an airplane off a ship. The Salmson engine was in effect a
British based engine which was built from a Gnome design, and introduced on
the Short 135, built with the following options: a Salmson135 hp; a SunbeamCoatalen 135 hp in one size; a Salmson 200 hp; the Sunbeam-Coatalen 225 hp
Mohawk; and in the larger size, the 240 hp Gurkha engine.
In 1914 Louis Coalalen began work on the 12-cylinder version of his 150 hp
V8 engine. Capt. Murray Sueter, Director of the Air Department and Controller
of the Royal Naval Air Services, saw this as an excellent power plant for a longrange torpedo-carrier, with a substantially better performance than the 200 hp
Salmson could offer. Capt. Sueter, with Lieut. Hyde-Thomspon, had drawn up a
detailed specification for a seaplane to carry a 14-inch Whitehead torpedo, with
a crew of two. When Murray Seuter first explained his requirements to Horace
Short, one of the Short brothers, he replied, Well, if you require this
particularly to be done, I will produce a seaplane that will satisfy you. From
this the Short Type 184 Seaplane was instigated, though quite as frequently
called the Two-Two-Five referring to the horsepower of its Sunbeam-Coatalan
engine. There was an initial order for ten Type 184s in 1915, and seventy-five
Type 184s later.
In October 1914 the original RNAS depot ship Hermes had been fully
refitted as a seaplane-carrier, but was torpedoed and sunk in the English
Channel. The converted seaplane carriers Engadine, Empress and Riviera, the
recently converted Campania, the old Cunard liner, and several Isle of Man
packets, the Ben-my-Chree in particular, had been commissioned about the same
time as the first flight of 184; and on 21st May 1915, left Harwich for the
Dardinelles. She arrived at Mitylene on the 12th June, and two months later both
Types 184 and 185 launched their torpedoes in anger, and with effect. There
were 312 Short Type 184s in the RAF at the Armistice, all but 30 having
Sunbeam-Coatalen aero-engines; and they remained in service until the end of
1920.
Percy Jones, my grandfather and the manager of the leather work, told my
father Eric, that it was common knowledge amongst the workers of Sunbeam
that Sidney Guy, who was their boss at Sunbeam, after a falling out with the
management in 1914, left to set up on his own account as Guy Motors Ltd, at
Fallings Park, Wolverhampton. It was reputed that he had increased the
profitable working of Sunbeam by a terrific amount, by various cost cutting
methods and more profitable operations. He had asked the management for an
equivalent percentage raise in his salary, only to be refused. More of that move
to Fallings Park will be mentioned later on in the book.
Alderman John Marston, the Mayor of Wolverhampton, apart from starting
Sunbeam Car Company, was the manufacturer of a bicycle at the works
surrounded by Jeddo Street, and part of Paul Street in 1887. It was generally felt
that Coventry was the hub of cycle manufacture during the 1860s, but
Wolverhampton was also very important in the industry; and by 1890 about fifty
manufacturers of cycles were in the nearby area. The way the sun glinted on the
frame of John Marston's bike, prompted his wife to suggest that the name of
Sunbeam should be used. The bicycle was a great success, and the name of
Sunbeam was registered, and the Paul Street plant was called Sunbeamland.
Shortly afterwards the nearby Villiers Street premises were purchased, and
the Villiers Cycle Components Co. was founded, with Charles, the son of John,
in charge, under the chairmanship of John. Both the Villiers Street factory and
the Moorfield Road factory for Sunbeam motor cars were surrounded by Penn
Road, Marston Road, part of Upper Villiers Street, Chetwynd Road and part of
Goldthorn Road; thus covering an area of half a square mile. Villiers Street was
named after the Rt. Hon. C. P. Villiers, the Member of Parliament for
Wolverhampton for an incredible sixty-three years, until he died on the 16th
January 1898.
In the photograph above, the car on the left is a 1914 Sunbeam Grand Prix
car, fitted with a 6-cylinder 5-litre engine. The car in the centre is a 1921/22
Sunbeam/Talbot-Darracq chassis fitted with a 3-litre 8-cylinder engine. The
final car on the right is a 1919/20 Sunbeam V12 350hp world record car,
presently in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, see also in the photograph
below.
During a recent visit, the picture shows the engine looking very smart with a
coating of aluminium paint, but with the cam covers masked with clingfilm.
After 1925, the effort would be in record breaking, other than racing. In
particular Coatalen was suggesting that a series of Sunbeam Coatalen V12 aero
engines, would be effective in tackling the world land speed record. Malcolm
Campbell acquired the car, raising the record from 133.75 mph, held by Kenelm
Lee Guinness in an 18 litre V12 aero engine, first of all to 146.16 mph, and then
to 150.87 mph at Pendine. This car was conceived and built between 1919 and
1921. This record was beaten in 1926 by Henry Seagrave in the 4 litre, V12
Sunbeam Tiger, who recorded 152.33 mph.
The massive 27 litre aero-engined V12 Liberty driven by Parry Thomas,
beat the record in the following season, raising it to 170 mph. The challenge was
thrown down and Coatalen had decided with Henry Seagrave to set their sights
on a Sunbeam car which would travel at 200 mph. Coatalens idea was that he
could site two of his Matabele engines in one car.
Coatalen was very efficient with his engine designs of his series of overhead
valve-engined cars, and was successful in the field of marine craft. The
Experimental and Racing Department was very busy dealing with producing by
hand various high powered car racing engines. They were also producing high
speed power boat racing engines for racing at Monaco, such as the V8 Crusader
engines, which were originally aero-engines. He decided to purchase a Henry
Farman aeroplane, and to experiment using his own Sunbeam aero engines to
power it. This aeroplane was flown by Sir John Alcock, being the first man to
make history in crossing the Atlantic in 1919 in a 'heavier than air machine',
powered by a Sunbeam 150 hp V8 aero engine. The Sunbeam Car Company was
one of the few firms in the world which had standardised aero engines, designed
and built of sufficient power to lift British seaplanes into the air; these engines
being available before the impending war broke out. The aero engine enterprise
meant much more prosperity during the war, when demand increased from the
War Office for more powerful aero and marine craft engines such as in the
Bristol fighters and seaplanes. The demand was so great for Sunbeam aero-
engines that, even with the acres of extra factory space that had been
constructed, some still had to be manufactured under licence by other firms.
The designing staff of Sunbeam produced many types of aero engines at
Moorfield Road during the first four years of WW I, some with side valves; but
as the result of its racing car practice, the overhead valve came to the fore with
the demand for more horse power. Sunbeam had the 'dry sump' system of
lubrication, invented by Louis Coatalen, as a matter of course. The whole design
embraced other features which has revolutionised engine performance. Demands
were made for aero engines of 250 hp, with occasional bursts to 350 hp for four
or five minutes for emergencies, but yet need to have economy, reliability and a
long working life.
In 1929, my father Eric's need for a better paid job drew him just five
minutes down the road to Sunbeam in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, after seeing
the companys advertisement for workers. He was offered a position in the
plywood flooring division of the ash framing and seating department. He
worked under Percy Jones, the manager of the department, whose family home
was in Welshpool. Percy Jones had served an apprenticeship in the seating and
leather work department of a carriage company, which manufactured high
quality horse drawn carriages, but then he had moved on to work with Daimler
Motor Company (1904) Ltd in Coventry.
The 1905 Daimler 28hp landaulette which was the type of car that Percy Jones
would have worked on.
The Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd, as it was originally called, was formed in
1896 by F. R. Simms to exploit Gottlieb Daimler's motor patents, of the German
Daimler Company, (Daimler-Motoren-Gelleschaft) of Cannstatt. The Coventry