makers such as Barker or Hooper, the firm had long been established as a maker of top-quality carriages for Yorkshire nobility, gentry and mill owners. Originally, it was formed as a partnership, Rippon and Marsom, in 1870, but fairly soon the partnership was dissolved and by 1882 it was trading as Rippon Brothers. The partners at this stage were William Edward Rippon and Joseph Rippon, sons of the firm’s founder William Rippon. The founder’s third son, George, joined the company in 1892. There have been suggestions that
Rippon’s coach-building credentials are much more illustrious, stretching back to Walter Rippon of Yorkshire who is recorded as having made a State Coach for Queen Elizabeth in 1564. Although there is no Walter mentioned in the Rippon family tree dating back to 1760, the connection between the 16th century coach-maker Walter Rippon and Rippon Bros remains a mightily tempting one to make but, unfortunately, somewhat speculative.
In the firm’s early years production was solely of elegant-looking horse-drawn carriages and carts, four or two wheels respectively. It soon developed an enviable reputation for the quality and durability of its vehicles, the sort of accolade not lightly bestowed by bluff Yorkshire folk, however high their social position. Even by the start of the 20th century, when
the motor car was fairly well established on the Continent, many coach-building firms failed to realise that it was here to stay and they would have nothing to do with these noisy, smelly and unreliable contraptions. Rippon, however, took up the challenge as early as 1903, erecting its first car body at its premises, described as “The West Riding Carriage and Harness Manufactory” in St John’s Road, Huddersfield; there were other branches of the firm in Bradford and Leeds. At the 1904 Bradford Exhibition, a huge
six-month-long event, inspired by the Great Exhibition of 1851, Rippon had one of the largest stands, containing no fewer than 20 horse-drawn vehicles and seven exhibits from
STRIVE FOR PERFECTION 070
its new “Motor Department”. The name of its premises had now become “The West Riding Carriage, Harness and Motor Manufactory”. Rippon was one of the first coach- building firms to realise that, as well as simply supplying bodywork, it could purchase the chassis, with trade discount, from the manufacturer, fit the bodywork and sell the complete vehicle to the customer. Repair and maintenance facilities were a further source of income. As a natural follow-on, Rippon also started the buying and selling of cars by various makers, in effect the garage trade much as we know it today.
FROM HORSE TO HORSEPOWER It was in November 1905, when C S Rolls & Co was still “The Sole Agents for Rolls- Royce Distributing Ltd”, that Rippon started negotiations regarding the purchase of a
Above: Queen Elizabeth I’s coach, built by Walter Rippon. Opposite: The first Rolls-Royce bodied by Rippon, with landaulette coachwork
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