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The Early Years

Brothers Benjamin and William Jowett started in the cycle business and went on to make V-twin engines for driving machinery. In 1904 they became the Jowett Motor Manufacturing Company based in Back Burlington Street, Bradford. They designed their first car in 1906 but it did not go into production until 1910 when the car had a 816cc flat twin water-cooled engine, a three-speed gearbox and tiller steering. The body was a lightweight open two seater. Twelve vehicles were made before an improved version with wheel steering was launched in 1913 and a further 36 were made before the outbreak of World War One when the factory was turned over to munitions manufacture.



War machines into the 20's

The company moved to the Springfield Works, Bradford Road, Idle, after World War One and they changed the company name to Jowett Cars Ltd. They started making cars there in 1920. The first vehicle was the Jowett 7 using an enlarged version of the pre-war flat twin, 831cc and then 907cc in 1921. The engine was soon famed for its pulling power, reliability and economy. Commercial vehicles based on the car chassis were also built from 1922. In 1923 coil ignition and electric starting were added and the four-seater Long Four was introduced in tourer form, followed in 1925 by a saloon model. In 1929, the engine received removable cylinder heads to ease maintenance and braking was on all four wheels.






The Thirties through to World War 2

1934 saw the launch of the Jowett Kestrel with four speed gearbox and in 1935 there was the Weasel sports tourer. The first four-cylinder (flat four) car arrived in 1936 with the 1166cc twin carburettor Jowett 10 which continued until the outbreak of World War Two alongside the traditional twin cylinder models which grew to 946cc in 1937. In 1935 the company went public and in 1936 Benjamin Jowett retired. Brother William carried on until 1940 when production of cars stopped although engine production for motor-generator sets continued alongside aircraft components and other military hardware. The company was bought by property developer Charles Clore in 1945 and he sold it in 1947 to the bankers Lazard Brothers.



Immediately post war

After World War Two, the twin-cylinder engine was dropped from the range of new cars, but still used for the commercials (1005cc) now comprising a light lorry, the Bradford van, two versions of the Utility, and chassis front-ends and kits for outside coachbuilders, many abroad. The new cars were completely different to the pre-war ones with the streamlined Jowett Javelin designed by a team led by Gerald Palmer. This had such advanced features as a flat four push-rod engine, independent front suspension with torsion bars front and rear and unitary body construction. The car could do 80mph and had excellent handling. In 1950 the Javelin was joined by the Jowett Jupiter sports with a chassis designed by Eberan von Eberhorst who had worked for Auto Union.





Going out in a blaze of glory

Javelins were designed for production levels never before attempted by Jowett with Javelin and Bradford body production out-sourced to Briggs Motor Bodies. The Jupiters were always built in-house. The new mechanicals had teething troubles but Javelin bodies were being mass produced to the original schedule leading to them being stockpiled. This over-optimism was the company's downfall and even after the engine and gearbox problems were solved the Idle plant was never able to build, or sell, the expected volume and this led to the inevitable suspension of Javelin production in 1953 together with the by now outdated Bradford.


The end of Production

Jupiters remained in demand and were built up to the end of 1954. The company remained solvent, but sold their factory to International Harvester who made tractors at the site until the early 1980s. Jowett then switched to manufacturing aircraft parts for the Blackburn & General Aircraft Company in a former woollen mill at Howden Clough, Birstall, near Batley. Jowett was later taken over by Blackburn in 1956, although spares for the post-war cars were kept available until 1963, when the remainder of the Jowett company was closed due to the rationalisation of the aircraft industry. There is now a Morrison's supermarket on the site of the former Jowett factory at Idle.