Henlys Manchester 4604

[caveman]

According to the Jaguar build leger, my car was originally delivered through Henlys Manchester 4604. Does anyone know what the 4604 refers too?

[mystery type]

Maybe Henlys had a distributor number as they had many outlets.
Reminds me of a wooden sign I have….

[abowie]

Phone number?

[malcolm]

My dad worked for Henlys - sadly not around to ask!

[Heuer]

Not a phone or post code number:


Frank Hough (1888-1935) —who also had his own motor business in Walsall which he'd started in 1909— and Herbert Gerald Henly (1891-1973) began business in 1917 as car dealers at 89 Great Portland Street, London. When their private company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1928 they claimed to have one of the largest retail motor organisations in the country. It carried on business in London and Manchester dealing in "New and second hand cars of all descriptions". Showrooms and petrol stations gave the Henlys name to Henlys Corner, the junction of the North Circular Road, A1 and Finchley Road in Hampstead Garden Suburb and to Henlys Roundabout at the start of the A30 at Hounslow West. The business's scale may be gauged by the chairman's catalogue of their wartime activities given to shareholders in January 1946:
"Assembly of 25,000 army vehicles of all types, repairs and maintenance of all types of service vehicles. In addition providing nearly 250,000 tank and aircraft assemblies and parts, repair or dismantling of 1,000 aircraft, handling over 80,000 tanks and packing more than a million spare parts."

In 1946 Henlys distributed Armstrong Siddeley, Austin, Bentley, Jaguar, Riley, Rolls-Royce and Rover cars along with Studebaker vehicles for the whole of England and those of the Willys Overland Corporation including their famous Jeep. When Herbert Henly died in 1973 a brief obituary in The Times reported the business he had helped found ran 110 petrol stations, works departments and showrooms throughout Britain.

Henlys expanded by natural growth and by acquisition of major competitors. By 1981 car sales and profits were down. Aside from the British Leyland brands Henlys distributed Ford, Renault and Talbot.

[Gfhug]

That 1962 E Type has an “ice detector”. What could that be? A wet finger held out of the window
Any ideas, anyone?

Geoff

[Heuer]

Probably something installed by the owner or a gadget he built from Practical Electronics (I built an electronic ignition system for my Dad's Cortina 1600E based on such an article).

Or simpler still fit a Smiths Motor Accessories outside temperature gauge. This one is unused and from the 1960's:


"With scales in both Celsius and Fahrenheit this, like all dials of this type, could be fitted to any dash by utilising a suitable bracket bolted or screwed to the lower edge of the dash panel, as can be seen fitted to the Ford Prefect shown above. The ambient temperature was monitored by a reading taken from a sensing unit, or bulb, clamped in place behind the car's front bumper in such a way that it wasn't affected by air flow passing over and under the car, and also by the heat emanating from the radiator. Connecting the sensor to the gauge was a capillary tube, not unlike that found on the more common water temperature monitors."

[caveman]

Definitely not phone numbers:

I’ve asked the question at Jaguar Heritage, just awaiting a response.

[christopher storey]

That 1962 E Type has an “ice detector”. What could that be? A wet finger held out of the window
Any ideas, anyone?

Geoff

It is probably an electric device known as Icelert, which consisted of a circular chromed dome about 75mm diameter which was usually mounted below the front bumper and which was wired so that an orange dashboard light was automatically switched on if the temp fell below 4 degs C . IIRC it flashed slowly at first, becoming more insistent as the temperature fell to freezing point

[Gfhug]

Thank you Christopher and David for your suggestions. I somehow couldn’t imagine an OAT probe sticking out of the windscreen
Now further off topic, I’m interested in the electronic ignition David fitted to the 1600E, how well did it work?

Geoff

[Heuer]

I remember them Christopher, weren't they fitted as standard to NADA Rover P6's, options on UK cars and people thought they were unmarked Police cars with radar as a result?



Geoff

The electronic ignition worked well although it still used the contact breaker to trigger and then boosted the HT voltage. I did the circuit build and my Dad fabricated the housing from aluminium sheet.

[Simon P]

Not a phone or post code number:

My Dad bought his original Carmen Red S1 4.2 FHC new from the Manchester Peter Street branch in 1966!

Henlys arranged that it was sat in the showroom window ready for collection, and when the moment came they pulled back the showroom windows, and he drove out across the pavement and onto Peter Street and away. Can you imagine the sense of theatre both for my Dad (ironically named Peter himself) and anyone happening to be passing by at the time!

Glad to day that that car, fully concours restored in the late 2000's, is still going strong to this day

[caveman]

Latest update from Jaguar Heritage; They believe it is the order number but they’re not 100% certain.