Henry Meadows

Henry Meadows, usually known simply as Meadows, of Wolverhampton, England were major suppliers of engines and transmissions, to the smaller companies in the British motor industry. Founded in 1920 in Park Lane, Wolverhampton, as a car gearbox maker, they expanded into petrol engines in 1922 and in the 1930s built a large factory in Fallings Park, Wolverhampton.

Early production was connected with the move from W.H.Dorman & Co of the Dorman works manager (W.H.Dorman's son, John E. Dorman) in August 1921, and a design engineer Mr R.S. Crump. Dorman had been producing engines from 1903. The early Meadows engines and gearboxes were produced with Meadows-Dorman on the castings. This resulted in a court case between Dorman and Meadows, claiming that this was a misuse of the Dorman name and reputation. Dorman won the case

One of the most popular petrol engines was the 1½-litre four-cylinder Type 4ED engine, widely used by Frazer Nash and Lea-Francis during the 1920s and 30s, and in the H.R.G. light car from 1936 to 1939 which was sold with a guaranteed top speed of 90 mph. Another successful product, the 4½-litre 6-cylinder engine is best remembered as the power unit for Invicta and Lagonda cars.

Meadows also produced marine engines after a visit from Hubert Scott-Paine in 1931 who was looking for some better engines for his prototype seaplane tender (RAF200) which was fitted at that time with Brooks engines. After some modification to allow the engines to be angled at 17 degrees, the British Power Boat Company selected Meadows 6-cylinder petrol engines for the high-speed seaplane tenders, each having two engines rated at 100 bhp, and being capable of 29knots.

In the 1930s Meadows developed a flat-12 type-MAT/1 engine of 8858cc for military applications including the Tetrarch Light Tank. Later they built a 16litre 300 bhp flat-12 type-DAV petrol engine used in the Covenanter tank This engine was also used in the prototype A20 tank, although this weighed more than twice the Covenanter and so was considered underpowered. The later, and widely used, A22 Churchill tank was a development of the A20. Partly to provide more power, and also to improve production time, this was instead powered by a Vauxhall flat-12 engine termed the "Twin-Six", as it was based on two pre-existing Bedford six-cylinder lorry engines. This engine was slightly more powerful, but only to a rated 350 bhp. The Guy Armoured Car, made in 1939–1940, used the Meadows 4-cylinder 4-ELA petrol engine.

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