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The Vulcan Motor & Engineering Co. Ltd.

As an affluent, residential town and visitor destination Southport and its Council were generally opposed to industry within the town, something which led to several Southport entrepreneurs building factories in nearby villages such as Burscough. However, Southport did have several medium-sized industrial enterprises and one, major, industrial site: the Vulcan Motor & Engineering Co. Ltd. This industrial adventure was started by the Hampson Brothers, Thomas and Richard, from Leigh. They had started making cars in a small way in 1898, a few years before they moved to Southport.

By Graham J. Fairhurst, Southport, Lancashire.

Moving to Southport

There seem to have been a number of reasons for the move. The wealthy residents of Southport were seen both as a potential market for the vehicles and as potential investors. Its residents were already taking to this new form of transport and the town had an active motor club. At the same time, there would also be less competition for labour and an attractive setting would also have the ability to draw skilled workers from established manufacturing towns. The brothers started in a small way in a garage/workshop at 13, Yellow House Lane near the centre of Southport.

The Yellow House Lane Garage.

Two years later they moved to a larger workshop in Hawesside Street, again near the town centre (this workshop was the former Volunteer Drill Hall and was where Vulcan Street now is) and the firm grew rapidly, soon employing 200 people and outgrowing the Hawesside Street workshop.

The Hawessside Street Works (showing its origins as a drill hall).

The first purpose-built motor factory in Britain

A new company was formed in 1906 and a new, purpose-built factory was completed in the following year on a greenfield site in Crossens on the northern outskirts of Southport. The site was adjacent to Crossens station with a frequent service of electric trains from other Southport stations making it convenient for the workers to commute and for bringing in raw materials and despatching vehicles via the station’s extensive goods yard.

The Hawesside Street works was retained (at least for some years) as the Vulcan Repair Works.

The Crossens facility was Britain’s first purpose-built motor factory and was solidly built in red Accrington brick and decorated terra cotta work. It was designed by the Architects Prescott & Bold of 30A London Street, Southport. The works was fully electrified with a large machine shop and woodworking shop. It had its own electricity generating station with a tall chimney, large, timber cooling tower and 2 foot gauge railway taking coal to the boilers and for disposing of the ash. There was an extensive timber yard which was also served by a 2 foot gauge railway. The works was extended in 1911 and again in 1913 when a tall clocktower was added which also housed a large water storage tank. At its peak the works employed nearly 2,000 workers.

The early cars had single cylinder 6HP engines (none of these survive). In 1903 a 2-cylinder car was made and this was followed by 4-cylinder models and a 6-cylinder engine was also made, but it is believed this was never used by Vulcan but was used by Lea Francis in their vehicles.

The Vulcan Factory viewed from the south, with the electricity generating station on the left.
The Vulcan Factory viewed from the east, with the 1,000th commercial vehicle produced and Rufford Road rising up to the bridge over the Southport – Preston Railway.

Vulcan

In 1910, Vulcan introduced their famous radiator mascot of Vulcan (the Roman God of Fire) or a blacksmith at his forge. For marketing and with confidence in their reputation, Vulcan introduced the slogan: ‘Ask a man who owns one.’

Vulcan also built lorries and, during the First World War, the works produced a large number of lorries and ambulances at a rate of 100 per week. The works also became the first outside of the established aircraft industry to build aeroplanes. A large number of DH-9 biplanes were built (with the exception of their motors). The works also made mines for the Admiralty. A restructuring of the Company occurred in 1916 when it became the Vulcan Motor Engineering (1916) under the control of Charles Benson Wardman who had many connections and directorships in engineering.

A Vulcan World War 1 ambulance parked outside the Office Entrance at the Crossens Factory (note the ‘FY’ Southport registration).

Always with an eye for publicity, immediately after the First world War, the Company sponsored Southport Football Cub which became the first British football club to have a commercial sponsor.

Struggling in the 1920s

The transition away from war work was challenging and, in common with other manufacturers, Vulcan had a difficult time through the 1920s. To some extent Vulcan’s problems were of its own making. Compared with other British car manufacturers it had a lot of models, ranging from the large, up market, Birkdale Landaulet to a very cheap small car and it was slow to adopt a production line system. A majority shareholding in the Company was taken by Harper Bean in 1919, a West Midlands car maker not without its own problems.

For Vulcan, the 1920s were also characterised by changes in control, with the Hampson brothers coming back into the picture, litigation and financial irregularities. Car production ceased in 1929, but Vulcan continued to build lorries and buses into the late 1930s.

Brockhouse Engineering

The Company was bought by the West Midlands engineering firm: J. Brockhouse & Co. in 1937. They renamed the works Brockhouse Engineering (Southport), sold the rights to manufacture Vulcan vehicles to Tilling Stevens of Maidstone and brought other general engineering work into the factory.

The Second World War again brought aircraft manufacturing into the factory along with other war work. In the post-War period the factory was used to make a range of Brockhouse products such as BMB President tractors and rotavators and Corgi motor cycles.

Different owners

Brockhouse sold their loss-making Crossens factory to Mullards in 1955. Mullards were a major British electrical and electronics company (albeit owned by Philips of the Netherlands since the 1920s) with a significant presence in Blackburn and elsewhere in Lancashire. The Crossens factory became one of Mullards’ major facilities and even led to the establishment of a new, second factory in the Blowick district of Southport. However, like much of British manufacturing, it fell victim to the impacts of ‘globalisation’, closing in 2003. Over the years, the name on the factory had changed to Philips and then LG Philips. Mullard/Philips did not use the whole of the former Vulcan factory and the earlier part was occupied for many years in the 1960s/70s by Dorman Smith (a Preston-based engineering firm) and Book Centre Ltd and later by plastics manufacturer.

Surviving Examples

So far as is known, about 10 Vulcan cars survive, including two of the early 2-cylinder 10HP side valve engine ones. National Museums Liverpool have a very nice Model 12 from 1921 which was loaned to the Atkinson in Southport for their Vulcan exhibition in 2019. Other later Vulcan cars have survived (some in New Zealand where Vulcan agents sold a number of cars) and there are 1909 and 1914 models preserved in the UK. A number of Vulcan lorries also survive.

The Vulcan car owned by National Museums Liverpool on display at the Atkinson Southport September 2019.

See what other related records National Museums Liverpool have in their archives here.

Regretably, the Yellow House Lane workshop was demolished in 2010. Despite there being a strong case for the Crossens factory, as Britain’s first purpose-built vehicle factory, to be conserved in some alternative use it was demolished in 2020. Fortunately, the terra cotta ornamentation from the entrance to the office building has been conserved for possible reuse at Becconsall Heritage Park.

Sources:

  • The author’s own research
  • Industrial Heritage magazine Spring 1986
  • Crossens, Southport’s Cinderella Suburb by Harry Foster published by the Birkdale and Ainsdale Historical Society in 2002. Go to society website.
  • The photographs of the Yellow House Lane and Hawesside Street workshops and the World War 1 Ambulance were provided by David Walshe of Southport.
  • The other photographs are from the Vulcan exhibition at the Atkinson in 2019.