Patrick Comerford
I suppose it’s because I am an Aston Villa fan – and quite a happy one these days – that I had always thought the Aston Martin had its home at or had taken its name from Aston, also the home of Aston Villa and Villa Park.
I have been a Villa fan ever since my teens, probably – almost certainly – because Villa were the big-name side nearest to Lichfield, and because Aston is such an accessible station on the train from Lichfield into Birmingham.
In my childhood and throughout my teens, the Aston Martin, as the name of luxury sports cars and grand tourers seemed to represent suave style and smooth sophistication, enhanced by Aston Martin’s involvement in motorsport, sports car racing and in Formula One.
Drivers like Stirling Moss and Jim Clark developed the reputation of Aston Martin in the 1950s and 1960s, and the name was glamourised or exaggerated when the Aston Martin become the car of choice for James Bond in the third Bond film Goldfinger in 1964.
Not that I ever learned to drive, or, for that matter, ever watched even one single Bond film from start to finish – although neither admission has ever stopped me from appreciating the aesthetic styling of classic and vintage cars.
Somehow, every time I passed through Aston on the line between Lichfield and Birmingham, or visited Villa Park, I still continued to imagine – no matter how mistakenly – that I was close to the home of Aston Martin. At the same time, somewhere in the back of my mind I had maintained the memory that there was some remote connection with Lichfield.
,
It was only when I moved to Stony Stratford and found myself enjoyinged ‘Classic Stony’ that I realised the home of Aston Martin is actually nearby in Newport Pagnell, and that the ‘Aston’ part of the name comes not from Aston, Aston Hall, or Aston Villa, but from Aston Hill near Aston Clinton in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.
The stories all seemed to coalesce when I found myself at the home of Aston Martain on Tickford Street in Newport Pagnell at the end of last week.
Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin (1878-1945) and Robert Bamford (1883-1942). They had joined forces as Bamford & Martin the previous year to sell and service cars. Martin raced specials at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton, and the pair decided to make their own vehicles. The first car to be named Aston Martin was created by Martin by fitting a four-cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine to the chassis of a 1908 Isotta Fraschini.
After World War I, Bamford left the business in 1920. Bamford & Martin went bankrupt in 1924 and was bought by Dorothea Benson (1876-1942), Lady Charnwood. Her husband Godfrey Rathbone Benson (1864-1945), had been Mayor of Lichfield from 1909 until 1911, when he was made a peer with the title of Baron Charnwood.
Lady Charnwood, who lived at Stowe House in Lichfield, put her son John Benson (1901-1955) on the board. But Bamford & Martin got into financial difficulty again in 1925 and Martin was forced to sell the company, ending Aston Martin’s last links with the founder who had given his name to the business.
Later that year, Bill Renwick, Augustus (Bert) Bertelli and investors including Lady Charnwood took control of the business, renamed it Aston Martin Motors and moved it to Feltham in West London.
David Brown Ltd bought Aston Martin in 1947, and at the same time acquired Lagonda, which moved to Newport Pagnell and shared engines, resources and workshops. Ever since, Newport Pagnell has been associated with the bespoke and luxury car maker. Newport Pagnell already had a rich coach building tradition that dated back to 1830 when Salmons Coachworks was formed.
The move from Feltham to Newport Pagnell was encouraged by the opening of the M1, the first motorway in the UK, in the early 1960s. It provided both rapid transport links and – in the days before speed limits – a convenient test track. And so, Sunnyside in Tickford Street, Newport Pagnell, which became Aston Martin’s global headquarters in the early 1960s. The factory welcomed several royal and celebrity visitors over the years, including one by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966.
Aston Martin sports cars were made at Newport Pagnell over the span of 52, with over 13,300 cars sent to customers all over the world. Among the many models designed and built there were: DB4, DB5 and DB6, V8 Vantage, the William Towns Lagonda and the original Vanquish.
The DB2/4 MkII was the first Aston Martin produced at the Tickford Street site. The DB5, launched in 1963 and became the most famous model was launched. Sean Connery starred with the DB5 in several James Bond film from 1964 on. The Aston Martin AMV8 was introduced in 1972 and production ran right through to 1989. In April 1984, Aston Martin celebrated the landmark production of its 10,000th car. Ford had fully acquired the company by 1993.
In 2007, the Newport Pagnell plant rolled out the last of nearly 13,000 cars made there since 1955, a Vanquish S. The Tickford Street facility was converted and became the home of the Aston Martin Works classic car department, which focuses on heritage sales, service, spares and restoration operations. UK production was later concentrated at Gaydon in Warwickshire, until a large site in St Athan, South Wales, was acquired in 2017 for a new factory. Production work retuned to Newport Pagnell that year.
Today the Aston Martin headquarters and the main production of sports cars and grand tourers are at Gaydon in Warwickshire. The facility in Newport Pagnell is the present home of the Aston Martin Works classic car department, which focuses on heritage sales, service, spares and restoration operations. The factory in St Athan, Wales, is the production site of Aston Martin’s SUV, the DBX.
As for Lady Charnwood, who had a controlling stake in Aston Martin 100 years ago in the mid-1920s, she seems to be only significant connection I can find between Lichfield and Aston Martin. Her moher, Nelly Thorpe, was the daughter of the Liberal politician Anthony John Mundella. As a child, Dorothea was painted by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais in 1882.
Nelly Thorpe bought Stowe House in Lichfield 1902, but fell ill soon after moving in. Dorothea and her husband Godfrey Rathbone Benson (1864-1945) then moved into the house. A Liberal politician and a man of letters, Benson was elected to Lichfield city council in 1904, was the Mayor of Lichfield in 1910-1911, and became Baron Charnwood in 1911.
Nelly Thorpe died in 1919, but the Charnwoods continued to live at Stowe House until 1933. Dorothea inherited many important literary manuscripts from her aunt, including many of the papers of Edward Lear; her husband was a pillar of the Johnson Society and its president in 1934-1935.
Their son John Roby Benson (1901-1955), who had been placed on the board of Aston Martin in 1925 by his mother, was the Sheriff of Lichfield 1933-1934, and remained at Stowe House until about 1937. He succeeded his father as Lord Charnwood in 1945, but the title died with him in 1955.
Stowe House had oter literary connections, as it once been the home of Thomas Day, the author of Sandford and Merton and of Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Curiously, it was built in the 1750s by Elizabeth Aston, daughter of Sir Thomas Aston of Aston – but that was Aston in Runcorn, Cheshire, and not Aston, the home of Aston Villa.
• ‘Classic Stony’ takes place again in Stony Stratford on Sunday 1 July from 9:30 am until 4 pm. It is run in partnership with Stony Stratford Business Association as part of ‘Stony Live’ week, and the day is in aid of Willen Hospice.
No comments:
Post a Comment