Thornycroft

Thornycroft was an English vehicle manufacturer that built coaches, buses and trucks from 1896 until 1977. In 1896 the naval engineer John Isaac Thornycroft formed the Thornycroft Steam Carriage and Van Company, which built its first steam van with a marine launch-type boiler; it could carry one ton and was shown at the Crystal Palace. Its first petrol vehicle followed in 1902 and the move to internal combustion power was complete by 1907. The Basingstoke factory supplied nearly 5,000 motor vehicles for the First World War effort, and in the Second World War the company designed the Terrapin and other war-related vehicles. In 1948 the name changed to Transport Equipment (Thornycroft) Ltd to prevent confusion with the shipbuilding Thornycroft company. The firm was taken over in 1961 by Associated Commercial Vehicles, which Leyland took over in 1962, and vehicle production at Basingstoke ended in 1969 with production transferred to Scammell. Its lorry names included the Nubian, the Big Ben and the Antar.