Coachbuilding
has a long history which probably came to a peak with the hand
built automobiles of the early 20th century. Many early cars
were little more than horseless carriages right into the
1920’s, The scope for coachbuilt vehicles was enormous.
However, with the advent of mass production of cars
coachbuilding took a back seat, relegated to specialist
vehicles, buses and commercial vehicle bodies.
However, one area of the automobile
sector where coachbuilding survived and has seen a renaissance
of sorts is in the development of limousines and hearses.
Formerly the preserve of names such as Rolls Royce, Bentley
and Daimler, with vehicles bodied by Mulliner and Park Ward
amongst others, increased demand for limousines and hearses to
serve the British Isles funeral profession has seen the market
grow to the point where it can accommodate both these
established brands and new imported ones.
Manufacturers now active here include
Coleman Milne, Wilcox, MacNeillie, Startin and Coway to name
but a few, with Fearghas Quinn in Co. Antrim across the Irish
Sea and Duffy in Eire proper south of the border. However,
hearse and limousine building is not exclusively a UK craft,
and given the finite size of some home markets it comes as no
surprise to find many continental coachbuilders actively
selling across national boundaries. So alongside Binz GmbH, we
now have companies such as Pollman Karosserie, Rappold
Karosserie and Welsch in Germany, Blaugaum in Spain, and
Pilato in Italy.
All of these firms produce European
style limousines and sometimes hearses too. However, the
ostentatiousness of the New World cannot be ignored, and the
UK market today is flooded with American limousines from
companies such as the Eagle Coach Company and Krystal to name
but two.
Of the ‘old-school’ UK
coachbuilders, Coleman Milne was founded in 1953 by Roderick
Milne and his partner, John Coleman. Initially the Company
built horseboxes but quickly moved into the development of
limousines and funeral hearses. Today, after several changes
of ownership, including bus builders Plaxton, the company is
now under the holding of Woodall Nicholson Limited. Woodall
Nicholson itself being one of the original inter-war
coachbuilders, and one of the key manufacturers of the Daimler
DS420 hearse.
Links to an earlier era also underpin
Wilcox, is another of the current suppliers of hearses and
limousines. Wilcox supplies vehicles manufactured by another
illustrious name in coachbuilding, Eagle Specialist Vehicles,
not to be confused with the American manufacturer Eagle Coach
Company.
To make things more confusing, the
Wilcox name is also borne by Wilcox Coachbuilders,
manufacturers of horseboxes and livestock trailers – though
the two are completely separate companies. Wilcox offers a
range of Daimler, Vauxhall & Jaguar hearses and
limousines.
Tracing the history of some of these
business can be fascinating. Take the Birmingham firm of
Thomas Startin Ltd. It was a long-standing Austin (and Rover)
dealer, but the company also had a commercial coachbuilding
arm. Originally established in 1840, its coachbuilding output
was by the 1970s concentrated on hearses. Their main business
consisting then of producing a couple of designs based on the
Daimler DS420, although they had previously converted a small
number of Austin FL2s. In the late 1980s Startins turned their
attention to the Rover 800, producing matching limousine and
hearse conversions at their new premises in the Witton area of
Birmingham.
