Jowett - Inter War Years

Inter War Years

Jowett Cars Limited was a new private company formed in June 1919 to make and sell motorcars and it purchased the car manufacturing portion of the business carried on by the Jowett Motor Manufacturing Company. It became a Public Company listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1935.

That year, 1919, a new works site was bought at Springfield, Bradford Road, Idle, outside Bradford, the site of a disused quarry. Car making started in the new factory in 1920. The first vehicle was the Jowett Seven using an enlarged version of the pre-war flat twin. First it was enlarged to 831 cc then to 907 cc in 1921 when the claim to 8 hp was dropped from advertising. Thereafter all Jowetts were Sevens until the introduction of the four-cylinder engine in 1936. The engine developed its maximum torque at low revs and was soon famed for its pulling power, reliability and economy.

Commercial vehicles based on the car chassis were also built from 1922 and became an increasingly important part of the company's output. Jowett first exhibited at the London Motor Show in 1921 and gradually broke out of their previous local market. In 1923 coil ignition and electric starting were added and the four-seater "Long Four" was introduced in tourer form priced from £245 followed in 1925 by a closed saloon model, the previous short-chassis two-seater continuing in production. In 1929, the engine received removable cylinder heads to ease maintenance and braking was on all four wheels. Production was briefly suspended in September 1931 when fire swept through the works.

1934 saw the launch of the Jowett Kestrel with four-speed gearbox and in 1935 there was the oddly named Weasel sports tourer. The first four-cylinder (flat four) car arrived in 1936 with the 1166 cc twin carburettor Jowett Ten which continued until the outbreak of war alongside the traditional twin-cylinder models which grew to 946 cc in 1937. In 1935 the company went public and in 1936 Benjamin Jowett retired. Brother William carried on until 1940.