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Swallow Sidecar Company

Walmsley & Lyons
  • Swallow Sidecar Company 1922-1926
  • Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company 1926-1927
  • Swallow Coachbuilding Company 1927-1930
Industry Motor vehicle bodies
Fate sold to Swallow Coachbuilding Company Limited
Successor Swallow Coachbuilding Company Limited
Founded Blackpool, England (2 September 1922 (1922-09-02))
Founders William Walmsley and William Lyons
Defunct 30 September 1930 (1930-09-30)
Headquarters Blackpool then Coventry, England
Key people
William Walmsley and William Lyons
Products sidecars and car bodies
Brands Swallow
Owners William Walmsley and William Lyons
Swallow Coachbuilding Company Limited
Swallow Coachbuilding Company Limited
Industry Motor vehicle bodies
Fate sold to S. S. Cars Limited 1934
Predecessors Walmsley & Lyons trading as: Swallow Coachbuilding Company
Successor S. S. Cars Limited
Founded Coventry, England (1 October 1930 (1930-10-01))
Founders William Walmsley and William Lyons
Defunct 1 August 1934 (1934-08-01)
Headquarters Coventry, England
Key people
William Walmsley and William Lyons
Products sidecars and car bodies
Brands Swallow
Owners William Walmsley and William Lyons

Swallow Sidecar Company, Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company, and Swallow Coachbuilding Company were trading names used by Walmsley & Lyons, partners and joint owners of a British manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars and automobile bodies in Blackpool, Lancashire — later Coventry, Warwickshire — before incorporating a company to own their business which they named Swallow Coachbuilding Company Limited.

Under co-founder William Lyons its business continued to prosper as SS Cars Limited and grew into Jaguar Cars Limited. The sidecar manufacturing business, by then owned by a different company, Swallow Coachbuilding Company (1935) Limited, was sold by Jaguar to an aircraft maintenance firm, Helliwell Group, in January 1946.

Swallow was founded by two friends, William Walmsley aged 30 and William Lyons then aged 20. Their partnership became official on Lyons's 21st birthday, 4 September 1922. Both families lived in the same street in Blackpool, England. Walmsley had previously been making sidecars and bolting them onto reconditioned motorcycles. Lyons had served his apprenticeship at Crossley Motors in Manchester before moving to Blackpool Sunbeam dealers, Brown & Mallalieu, as a junior salesman.

Their business partnership was known by three successive trading names: Swallow Sidecar Company, Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company, and Swallow Coachbuilding Company. In 1930 a limited liability company was incorporated to own their business.

Lyons, having recognised the commercial potential for these sidecars, joined Walmsley and together they found premises in Bloomfield Road, Blackpool using a £1,000 bank overdraft obtained with the assistance of their respective fathers. With a small team of employees they were able to begin commercial production of the motorcycle sidecars. Soon they had to rent more space nearby. Then they needed still more room. Walmsley's father bought a big building in Cocker Street Blackpool which they moved into and with all the extra space began to offer to repair and paint cars and fit new hoods and upholstery. They added coach building to their business name.

The first car that Lyons and Walmsley worked on intending to build and sell it in any quantity was the Austin 7, a popular and inexpensive vehicle. For their show car Swallow's Bolton, Lancashire agent had persuaded a dealer in Bolton to supply him under-the-counter (coachbuilders required Austin's prior approval or warranties might be voided) with an Austin 7 chassis.


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