Historian and CovSoc member Peter James tells us the interesting story of the Maudslay family and the vehicles that they built. Peter writes….
Henry Maudslay was born on 22nd August 1771 in Woolwich the son of Henry an artificer at the Royal Arsenal. He trained as an engineer with Joseph Bramah a locksmith and eventually formed his own business in Lambeth:- Maudslay, Sons & Field who produced marine steam engines.They powered early steamships including Brunel’s SS Great Britain. He is best known as a founding father of modern machine tool technology following ground breaking inventions such as the micrometer and the screw cutting lathe.
The Maudslay Motor Company was founded in 1901 by Walter Henry Maudslay (grandson of Henry Maudslay) principally to build marine engines in a factory at Parkside. Marine engine sales were unimpressive so in 1902 Alexander Craig designed a 3-cylinder engine with pressure lubrication to run in a car. Alexander was a design consultant who had previously been chief engineer at Humber in Coventry. Maudslay Motor Company then built a petrol railway locomotive for the City of London Corporation to pull trucks from London to Deptford. This was a larger 3-cylinder engine that could deliver 85 bhp and move 50 tons up a gradient of 1 in 36. It was the first commercially available petrol locomotive in the world.
By 1904 the company offered a range of cars from 25 to 60 hp topped by a 6-cylinder 9.6 litre version. Maudslay Motor Company became a public company in 1907 with Alexander Craig a member of the board of directors. He was promoted to the position of Managing Director in 1914.
Commercial vehicles were soon added to the offerings from the company and ranged from small vans to six-ton lorries. 1905 saw the introduction of double decker buses with the first customers being Scottish Motor Traction and the London Road Car Company. In March 1914 Coventry Corporation began a motor bus service with six Maudslay open top double decker buses.
World War 1
The advent of the first world war spelt the end of car production at Maudslay. The focus of the company switched to the supply of lorries to the military. Before the hostilities had commenced in 1913 Maudslay had delivered five and six-ton lorries to the British Army. Three-ton lorries were produced later and became the leading model supplied during the war. The firm diversified producing undercarriages for aircraft and reconditioning aircraft engines in addition to building lorries.
After World War 1
At the end of the war Maudslay didn’t return to building cars. The only exception being a sports car introduced at the London Motor Show at Olympia in November 1923. The focus of the business was now on commercial vehicles. During the 1930s sales fell until only 21 chassis were built in 1937. In 1935 Oliver Douglas Smith rescued the company which had run into financial difficulties.
World War 2
The beginning of the war in 1939 saw the business switch to military production. This included lorries and components for aircraft and tanks. Air raids in Coventry persuaded the company to transfer the majority of production to Great Alne near Alcester in 1941. The Coventry factory continued in a limited fashion but unfortunately was still bombed with a number of lives being lost.
After the War
Components were manufactured at Castle Maudslay near Alcester with vehicle assembly at Parkside. Maudslay merged with AEC and Crossley in 1948 and helped to form Associated Commercial Vehicles (ACV Ltd.)
The Coventry and Alcester factories continued to assemble AEC designed models during the 1950s. The last vehicle with a Maudslay badge appears to have left the factory in late 1959.
Summary
Maudslay was a highly respected, innovative engineering firm that transitioned from luxury cars to dominating the heavy commercial vehicle market, before being absorbed into a larger group.
Epilogue
Walter Henry Maudslay’s nephew Reginald Walter Maudslay left the Maudslay Motor Company to set up the Standard Motor Company. Reginald’s cousin Cyril Charles Maudslay later joined him there. They helped establish Coventry as a hub of the British motor industry in the early 20th century.