COOL CATS

François Prins looks back over 100 years of Jaguar Cars, one of Britain’s best-loved marques, which started life as a manufacturer of sidecars

- François Prins

It was on 4 September 1922 that two young motorcycle enthusiasts formed a small company in Blackpool. William Walmsley had designed and built a distinctive aluminium sidecar that he had put into limited production. A neighbour, William Lyons, saw the sidecar and ordered an example; he also thought that it had a commercial future. After discussions, the two men formed a company and put the sidecar into production.

The Swallow Sidecar Company was registered, with a capital of £1,000, at Bloomfield Road, Blackpool. A workforce of eight was soon busy with orders for the sidecar, which was sold through a network of dealers. The original Model One was quite labour intensive and Lyons simplified the design to streamline production. A showing of Swallow products at the London Motor Cycle Show resulted in additional orders.

Wanting to expand the business, William Lyons looked at producing a coach-built body to fit an already existing chassis. Lyons chose the popular Austin Seven chassis and, assisted by Cyril Holland, designed a smart two-seater body to replace the Austin original. In 1926, through trade contacts, Lyons made an appointment to show the Austin-Swallow to Henlys motor distributor and dealer in London. They liked the model and placed an order for 500 examples of the two-seater and a request for a four-seat saloon to be developed for them. With growing orders for both the sidecars and cars, a move was made to larger premises in Cocker Street, Blackpool.