Marshall and Company of Clayton in Manchester was probably that city’s first motor car manufacturer, building its first car in 1897. The company started to name its cars “Belsize” in 1901 after the Belsize Works that it occupied in Clayton. The Belsize name, perhaps more common today in London (Belsize Park springs to mind), was first found in Durham and is derived from “Bel Assis” in old French, which means beautifully situated. After several name changes, the company ended up in 1906 as the Belsize Motor Company.
Its products were for many years diverse but also conventional and included motor cars, taxis, commercial vehicles and fire engines, with capacities up to 14.5 litres. Before the First World War Belsize was a significant part of the United Kingdom’s motor industry, employing 1,200 people and making around 50 vehicles a week.
And then we come to the unconventional product in our Snapshot. After World War I Belsize followed a single model policy with a 15 hp car of 2,798cc, but in 1921 it introduced the Belsize-Bradshaw. This was powered by a 9-hp 1,294cc V-twin engine (sometimes given as 1,094cc) made by Dorman and designed by Granville Bradshaw.
Bradshaw was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1887. His early work was with aircraft and aero engines, and he was the co-founder of the All-British Engine Company (later ABC Motors then Walton Motors). At the end of 1918 ABC Motors Ltd transferred its motorcycle manufacturing and selling rights to Sopwith Aviation Co Ltd, with Granville Bradshaw of ABC Motors Ltd concentrating on design. This allowed him to sell his designs to other companies.
The engine of the Belsize-Bradshaw was partly air-cooled and partly oil-cooled. Bradshaw’s wartime work on aero engines had convinced him of the merits of using heat dispersal through the aluminium crankcase to aid air-cooling of cylinders by extending these deep into the crankcase where the lubricating oil could add to the air cooling of the conventionally finned upper part of the cylinders.
The Bradshaw V-twin was made by Dorman to a high standard and the engine was reputed to be smooth in operation but prone to overheating and difficult starting. Production of the Belsize-Bradshaw ceased after around 1,000 had been made. Belsize then went back to conventional power units and survived until growing competition from Morris, together with the 1924 slump, killed them off in 1925.
Image displayed with the kind permission of the Haynes Motor Museum.
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