Notable Commercial Vehicle Manufacturers in Britain

By 1920 the name had been changed to Karrier Motors Limited, still with the Claytons in charge. It quickly established as a provider of chassis for municipal chassis; dustcarts and road sweepers. They also provided four and six wheel bus chassis, and by 1926 trolleybuses too. Clough, Smith & Co. Ltd was makers of electrical equipment and following the collapse of the Straker Squire Company approached Karrier as an alternative chassis provider.

In 1932 Tilling-Stevens had tried to buy Karrier, but the directors fought off that take over. By the end of 1934 however, they were no longer able to fight the larger Rootes Group, who acquired the company; closing the Huddersfield operations and moving production to Luton.

Humber acquired Commer Cars in 1926, but was then itself brought under the control of Rootes the following year.

During World War II Humber built numerous scout cars for the Army, along with heavy 4x4 utilities and ambulances.

With the return to peacetime the Humber Pullman limousine had arrived on the scene, and many were produced for the armed services. More models introduced were Hawk, Snipe and Super Snipe.

Many of the convertibles and luxury saloons were fitted by Thrupp & Maberley, the oldest firm in the Rootes Empire, established as carriage builders in the 1780's.

Although not really regarded as a commercial builder, in the fifties Humber made 1 ton trucks for the Army, and the famous "Humber Pig"; a hastily designed armoured vehicle which was pressed into service quickly in Northern Ireland.

Sentinel

In the Victorian and Edwardian eras; Glasgow was synonymous with heavy industry including steam railway locomotives, and Alley & MacLellan entered steam road waggon building in 1906 by introducing a 5 ton vertical boiler wagon, featured a 2 cylinder undertype engine and chain drive. The company also had another side of the business which built steam railway locomotives and some railcars, for the LMS and industrial customers.

Following a move to Shrewsbury in 1915 the company changed its name to Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd, though there were several slight changes to the names over the years when further injections of capital were required to stave off financial problems.

The highly successful 5 tonner was replaced by the “Super” about 1920, and a direct development the DG4 appeared in 1926; quickly followed by a six wheeler (DG6) and a DG8 four axle version in 1929, the first British “eight legger” though in practise it carried no more than a six wheeler because of weight restrictions of the time.

By 1930 there was pressure on the remaining steam road vehicle builders, though Sentinel were able to introduce an improved “S” type as late as 1934, designated S4, S6 and S8 and production continued to some extent until the outbreak of the war.

Sentinel finally accepted that diesel trucks were the future, and their first effort the DV44 appeared in 1948. A light six wheel version (DV46) soon followed and the DV66; 6 cylinder 6 wheeler appeared in 1952. Sentinel was still not finished with steam however, as 100 steam dump trucks were supplied to the state owned Argentine Mining Corporation (YCF) in 1950/1. Argentina had used Welsh coal prior to 1939, but supplies were soon cut off, and a coal field was opened in Rio Turbio close to the border with Chile. A railway was proposed, but a road quickly built and operation commenced with petrol lorries. Poor performance saw them replaced by Sentinel steamers which used a large proportion of their load in the 320 mile round trip to Rio Gallegos. Some lasted until about 1960 on short trips, but the railway eventually opened in the mid fifties. A couple survive locally in preservation there.

Customers for the diesel trucks were becoming sparse and in 1956 the company decided to pull out of truck production. The factory passed to Rolls Royce for diesel engine production. The last batch of vehicles, built after the Rolls Royce take over were aircraft tugs were completed for the RAF, at least one of which survives in preservation today.

Sentinel's main agent North Cheshire Motors Ltd., purchased the remaining stocks of vehicles and parts and set up its own company TVW - Transport Vehicles (Warrington) Ltd in 1957 using Sentinel's designs. Most sales went to a group of former Sentinel customers who had financially supported the venture. Best products were an eight wheel platform truck and a 24 ton gvw tractor unit. In 1961 the company closed having built about 100 trucks.

George Singer has been a bicycle maker in Coventry since 1875. As with many other cycle firms he graduated to producing motor cycles and produced his first car in 1904. The cars went on to be very successful in trials at Brooklands and elsewhere. William Rootes joined the company as an apprentice after finishing his education, and by 1956 was to own the business.

By 1914 the company made the Singer 10, an innovative small car at 1100 cc. These were very popular and after the war Singer concentrated on building similar vehicles. There was a large expansion during the 1920s and the five separate factories in Coventry were rationalised and new premises opened in Birmingham.

Commercial production was attempted in 1929 with a 2 ton lorry and a 20 seat bus being offered, but by 1932 commercial production had been abandoned. In 1929 Singer was third in the list of British car production, only surpassed by Austin and Morris but by the mid thirties their market share had slumped. An attempted sale of the company to Rover in 1936 fell through and Singer was reorganised as Singer Motors.

Late in 1955 the Singer shareholders decided to join Rootes, and this took effect in 1956 with the understanding the Singer name would still be used, being largely as a Singer version of the Hillman Minx.

In 1901 the Vulcan Motor & Engineering Company was founded in Southport, Lancashire and exhibited their first motor car at the Liverpool Cycle & Motor Show in the following year.

By 1906 the company had reached production of over 100 vehicles annually and was established outside of its Lancashire heartland. A new works was built at Crossends, though the Hawesside Street premises were retained for a few more years until further extensions were made at Crossends. Motor car production was suspended during 1914-1918 and aircraft frames and aero engines were made. During the war the firm produced some commercial vehicles but reverted to motor cars after the war (until 1927). They produced a number of low floored municipal vehicles but in the 1930s they got into difficulties and were taken over by Tilling-Stevens in 1937 and production moved to Maidstone. The commercial vehicles included the 'Jubilee' and 'Retriever', both two tinners produced in the 1930s

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