Jones Brothers was a British

coachbuilding A coachbuilder manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. The trade of producing coachwork began with bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. Today it includes custom automobiles, buses, motor coaches, and railway carriages. The word ...

company that primarily manufactured

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

bodies, and produced bodies for luxury vehicles.

History

Austin Taxi 1939 East Anglia Transport Museum 8583304389

Jones began operations in 1928. The company was initially based in the London district of

Bayswater Bayswater is an area in the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...

. Jones began producing bodies for taxis early on. Chassis and engines initially came from the

Austin 12 hp The Austin Twelve is a motor car introduced by Austin in 1921. It was the second of Herbert Austin's post World War I models and was in many ways a scaled-down version of his Austin Twenty, introduced in 1919. The slower-than-expected sale ...

("Heavy 12"), then from 1934 from the Austin 12/4.

Mann & Overton Mann & Overton Limited owned and operated a motor vehicle dealers business previously known as Mann & Overton's and established 14 May 1901 which came to specialise in the supply and financing of Hackney carriage, London taxicabs, first Unic then A ...

took over distribution for the London area. In the mid-1930s, bodies for private vehicles were also added, such as a one-off aerodynamic two-door car built on the chassis of the Lanchester Ten or a small series of convertibles with

Austin 12 The Austin Twelve is a motor car introduced by Austin in 1921. It was the second of Herbert Austin's post World War I models and was in many ways a scaled-down version of his Austin Twenty, introduced in 1919. The slower-than-expected sale ...

mechanics, which were marketed as ''Sandringham.Nick Walker: ''A–Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960''. Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) , S. 131.'' After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Jones was taken over by FH Boyd-Carpenter, who had operated his own coachbuilding business under the name Boyd-Carpenter until the outbreak of the war and now ran the Rumbold Company, a supplier to the aircraft industry. Boyd-Carpenter merged Jones' headquarters with that of the Rumbold Company in the London district of Willesden. In the 1950s, Jones built

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Trent, Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms ...

-based ambulances and pick-ups; some convertible versions of the

Humber Super Snipe The Humber Super Snipe is a car which was produced from 1938 to 1967 by British-based manufacturer Humber Limited. Pre-war Super Snipe The Super Snipe was introduced in October 1938, derived by combining the four-litre inline six-cylinder eng ...

were also built at Jones. Jones may have acted as a subcontractor for

Thrupp & Maberly Thrupp & Maberly was a British coachbuilder based in the West End of London, England. Coach-maker to Queen Victoria, it operated for more than two centuries until closed under Rootes Group ownership in 1967. History Thrupp This family coachbui ...

, the preferred body supplier of the

Rootes Group The Rootes Group was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. From headquarters in the West End of London, the manufacturer was based in the English Midlands, Midlands and the distribu ...

. Older vehicles were given new bodies on a one-off basis. One of these was a Bentley 3.5 Litre, which was given a " Woodie"-style station wagon body. The last order came from

Bristol Cars Bristol Cars was a British manufacturer of hand-built luxury cars headquartered in Bristol, Bristol, England. It was formed from the car division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company after the World War II, Second World War and later became indepe ...

and was for the manufacture of the bodies for the

Bristol 406 The Bristol 406 was a luxury car produced between 1958 and 1961 by British manufacturer Bristol Aeroplane Co. Their cars were constructed to very high engineering standards and were intended to be long-lasting to justify their very high price. ...

, introduced in 1958. Jones built around 150 406 bodies.Christopher Balfour: Bristol Cars. A very British story, Haynes Publishing, 2009, , S. 246. According to one source, Jones did not fully complete the Bristol contract; before it was completed, the company became insolvent and ceased operations. Bristol passed the wooden molds used by Jones on to

Park Royal Vehicles Park Royal Vehicles was one of Britain's leading coachbuilders and Bus manufacturing, bus manufacturers, based at Park Royal, Abbey Road, in west London. With origins dating back to 1889, the company also had a Leeds-based subsidiary, Charles H ...

in 1961, where – starting with the 407 – the bodies for the stylistically only slightly modified successors to the 406 were manufactured until 1976. Another source reports that in 1962 Jones fitted a

Jaguar Mark 2 The Jaguar Mark 2 is a mid-sized luxury sports saloon built from late 1959 to 1967 by Jaguar in Coventry, England. The previous Jaguar 2.4 Litre and 3.4 Litre models made between 1955 and 1959 are identified as Mark 1 Jaguars.Eric Dymock, The ...

with a station wagon body on behalf of racing driver Mike Hawthorn.James Taylor: ''Jaguar Mks 1 and 2, S-Type and 420'', Crowood, 2016, .

Literature

* Nick Georgano: ''The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile: Coachbuilding.'' Routledge, Boca Raton, Florida 2001, . * Nick Walker: ''A–Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960.'' Herridge & Sons, Beaworthy 2007, .

References

{{Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom Bayswater Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom