Arthur Mulliner was the 20th century name of a coachbuilding business founded in Northampton in 1760 which remained in family ownership. The business was acquired by Henlys Limited in 1940 and lost its separate identity.
Henry Mulliner (1827-1887) of Leamington Spa was the second son of Francis Mulliner (1789-1841) of Northampton and Leamington Spa and a direct descendant of the Mulliner who built the business making mail coaches in Northampton around 1760. Henry and his wife born Ann Robson had six sons and six daughters [1]
Henry's brothers were:
 |
Henry's second son Colonel Arthur Felton Mulliner (1859-1946), born and raised in Leamington Spa, [1] who had been managing the works in Northampton [4] married in September 1887 the eldest daughter of the founder of Northampton's Albion Steam Brewery (see Ratliffe's Celebrated Stout). Soon after his father's death in November 1887 Arthur announced in the Northampton Mercury he would carry on the business of the late firm of H Mulliner & Co Limited of Northampton, Leamington and Warwick in the same Northampton premises in Bridge Street on his own account. [5]
Arthur Mulliner took the Northampton coachbuilding business into the construction of motor car bodies and by the beginning of 1899 Northampton had built over 150 mainly on Daimler chassis. [3] The relationship with the Daimler business was close.
In July 1897 two lady journalists from The Gentlewoman were driven by Arthur Mulliner in a Daimler (the 75 miles) from Northampton to their offices in Arundel Street, off the Strand in London. They reported the sensation to be like "tobogganing or riding on a switchback railway". They asked Mulliner why he called the car "she", he said because "it took a man to manage her". To prove Mulliner wrong they both took the controls during the journey south. [6]
Business boomed during the 1920s with orders for bodies on Armstrong Siddeley and Vauxhall cars being exhibited at the 1920 London Motor Show. [7]
In 1907 a new sales office and works was opened in Long Acre, London. [7]
In the 1930s although orders for the more traditional makers such as Derby's Rolls-Royce and Bentley continued, large production runs from the middle market makers were proving harder to get and in 1940 the business was sold [7] to the car distributor Henlys which closed the coach building business and dropped the name after Arthur's death in 1946 but kept the sales and marketing operation which lasted until 1976.
A few years before the first World War some aeroplanes were developed and built in a converted ice skating rink at the Battersea, London works - 2 to 16 Vardens Road, Battersea. [8]
Herbert Hall Mulliner. In the mid 1880s Arthur's brother H H Mulliner (1861-1924) started a coachbuilding business in Birmingham because Leamington Spa had fallen out of fashion and that coachbuilding business became Mulliners (Birmingham).
Henry Jervis Mulliner. In 1900 the motor-car part of the London operation jointly owned by Mulliner Northampton and Mulliner Liverpool [note 1] was purchased by H J Mulliner (1870-1967), son of R B Mulliner (1830-1902) of Chiswick and he put its ownership into his company formed in 1897, H J Mulliner Limited. [9]
Northampton
London
 Bentley 3½-litre chassis |  Rolls-Royce 20/25 chassis |  Rolls-Royce Phantom III chassis |
Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs, and a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1998.
Vanden Plas is the name of coachbuilders who produced bodies for specialist and up-market automobile manufacturers. Latterly the name became a top-end luxury model designation for cars from subsidiaries of British Leyland and the Rover Group, last used in 2009 to denote the top-luxury version of the Jaguar XJ (X350).
H. J. Mulliner & Co. was a well-known British coachbuilder operating from Bedford Park, Chiswick, West London. The company which owned it was formed by H J Mulliner in 1897 but the business was a continuing branch of a family business founded in Northampton in the 1760s to hire out carriages. In December 1909 the controlling interest in this company passed to John Croall & Sons of Edinburgh. Croall sold that interest to Rolls-Royce in 1959.
Mulliner Park Ward was a bespoke coachbuilder in Hythe Road, Willesden, London UK.
Park Ward was a British coachbuilder founded in 1919 which operated from Willesden in North London. In the 1930s, backed by Rolls-Royce Limited, it made technical advances which enabled the building of all-steel bodies to Rolls-Royce's high standards. Bought by Rolls-Royce in 1939, it merged with H. J. Mulliner & Co. in 1961 to form Mulliner Park Ward.
Mulliner may refer to:
Thrupp & Maberly was a British coachbuilding business based in the West End of London, England. Coach-makers to Queen Victoria they operated for more than two centuries until 1967 when they closed while in the ownership of Rootes Group.
Hooper & Co. was a British coachbuilding business for many years based in Westminster London. From 1805 to 1959 it was a notably successful maker, to special order, of luxury carriages both horse-drawn and motor-powered.
Abbott of Farnham, E D Abbott Limited was a British coachbuilding business based in Farnham, Surrey, trading under that name from 1929. A major part of their output was under sub-contract to motor vehicle manufacturers. Their business closed in 1972.
Mulliners Limited of Birmingham was a British coachbuilding business in Bordesley Green, with factories in Bordesley Green and Cherrywood Roads. It made standard bodies for specialist car manufacturers. In the 19th century there were family ties with founders Mulliners of Northampton and the businesses of other Mulliner brothers and cousins but it became a quite separate business belonging to Herbert Mulliner.
Weymann Fabric Bodies is a patented design system for fuselages for aircraft and superlight coachwork for motor vehicles. The system used a patent-jointed wood frame covered in fabric. It was popular on cars from the 1920s until the early 1930s as it reduced the usual squeaks and rattles of coachbuilt bodies by its use of flexible joints between body timbers.
Freestone and Webb were English coachbuilders who made bodies for Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars but also built bodies on other chassis including Alfa Romeo, Packard, and Mercedes-Benz.
H.R. Owen is a luxury motor retailer in Britain, and one of the world's largest retailers in Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Maserati, Lamborghini and Bugatti brands. The company is headquartered in London, and operates 18 sales franchises and 17 aftersales franchises.
Corsica Coachworks was a small coachbuilding business founded in 1920 just after World War I. They were builders of true bespoke car bodies employing no in-house designer. They realised clients' designs for them. Almost every Corsica body is unique.
The Great Horseless Carriage Company Limited was formed in May 1896 with a capital of £750,000 in shares of £10 each "of which £250,0000 was for working capital". The company was formed to carry on the horseless carriage industry in England and works with railway and canal adjoining were secured at Coventry. The rights that were purchased had little lasting value and after a number of financial reconstructions beginning in 1898 all activities were terminated by 1910.
Jack Barclay Bentley is the world's largest and oldest Bentley dealership and part of the H.R. Owen motor retailing group.
John Croall & Sons were a Castle Terrace, Edinburgh firm of funeral undertakers and carriage hirers founded in 1850 who expanded their business to include coaches, cabs and coachbuilding. In February 1897 the firm was incorporated as John Croall & Sons Limited. After 1960 ownership changed a number of times and the company was liquidated in 1992.
Darracq Motor Engineering Company Limited was a London importer, retailer and wholesaler of French-made Darracq and Talbot automobiles, a coachbuilder making regular production runs of bodies for S T D group products and a property holding company on behalf of its parent S T D Motors Limited.
Joseph Cockshoot was an English coachbuilder and car dealer based in Manchester.
Arnold of Manchester, William Arnold (Manchester) Limited owned the Arnold of Manchester coachbuilding business in Chorlton-cum-Medlock, Manchester. Arnold's began making car bodies in 1910 and between the wars built many bodies for famous brands of car. They also built motor coaches. They tried their hand at bus bodies, both single-deck and double-deck between 1928 and 1931. War ended production. After the Second World War they remained car sales and service agents.
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur Mulliner coachwork . |