Hi there, all,
Forgive me if this is
Here I go, swinging the lamp again:
A few years ago, I was talking with an older relative, telling her that my father had worked for a time for Weymanns (coachworks) at Addlestone in Surrey. Much to my surprise, she told me that the building had previously (i.e. before Weymanns) been used to assemble Bleriot monoplanes from parts brought over from France. The works had a special license to wheel the completed aircraft, presumably with their wings unshipped, a few hundred yards down the main street of Addlestone to the railway station for onward delivery to customers.
See here
http://www.timebus.co.uk/rlh/weymann.htm While at Weymanns my father did some work on lorries but he told me that their principal line was building 'Black Marias', used to transport prisoners to and from prison and the courts. They weren't actually black but a very deep navy blue, applied in many coats each rubbed down with cuttlefish bone in preparation for the next coat. They had six cells, three on each side of a central corridor. In case a prisoner refused to come out, each cell had a ceiling rose that could be connected to a convenient fire hydrant!
The web-site I've linked-to above is primarily about buses - I don't remember my father ever mentioning buses. However, I do know that Weymanns used to make high quality motor car bodies as did Park Ward and Tickfords.
Coming back to aviation - a few hundred yards from the Weymanns site was the factory of 'The Airscrew Company and Jicwood Limited'. The 'Airscrew Company' bit made beautiful laminated wooden aircraft propellors while the 'Jicwood' bit was an early chipboard factory. There must have been some sort of a link to Weymanns because, on a school tour, in 1952-ish, we were shown huge panels of moulded expanded rubber, destined to become the insulating layer in bus roofs (or rooves!!).
