Barkers began building Coaches in 1710 and supplied the British Royal family with many coaches. After almost 200 years they started to build bodies for cars, famously getting the approval of CS Rolls in 1905. This is typical of many coachbuilders who literally started by building wagons and coaches to be drawn by horses. Early motor manufacturers seemed to concentrate on the engineering of their devices and it was left to coachbuilders to transfer their skills to the horeseless carriage and make it more habitable. Before 1920 most cars were supplied as a chassis only for the customer to have their own body built on separately. However, very soon manufacturers established close ties with nearby coachbuilders, and certain body styles were standardised for the car. The need for mass production economies saw manufacturers turn to standard steel bodywork which they quickly learned how to make for themselves and the market for bespoke coachbuilt bodies declined rapidly in the late 1930s.
Abbotts of Farnham
Auto-Sleepers
Avon Coachwork
Barker Coachwork on Rolls-Royce
Berkeley Coachworks
Briggs Motor Bodies
CI Autohomes and Bluebird
Carbodies
Carlton Carriage Company
Charlesworth Bodies
Coachcraft Ltd
Coleman-Milne Coachbuilders
Corsica Coachworks
Cotswold Campers
Crayford Engineering
Cross and Ellis Coachbuilders
Dormobile (Martin Walter)
Duple Coachbuilders
Eustace Watkins
Freestone and Webb
Gurney Nutting
Thomas Harrington Coachbuilders
Holbrook (Coventry)
Hooper and Co
Jennings of Sandbach
H J Mulliner
Martin Walter
Woodall Nicholson
Panelcraft
Paralanian
Park Ward Coachwork
Plaxton
Rippon Bros Coachbuilders
Thrupp and Maberly
Tickford
Windovers
Williams and Pritchard
James Young Coachwork
Barker Brougham 1890, This carriage was made by Barker & Co, Chandos Street, London
Hoopers State Coach 1853, made by Hoopers of London