Vulcan
Vulcan’s origins date back to the early 20th century. Two brothers, Thomas and Joseph Hampson, started a garage business in 1903 at Southport in Lancashire. Three years later they set up the Vulcan Motor & Engineering Co (1906) Ltd at Crossens, Southport, to build cars, full production of which got under way in 1907.
At the beginning of World War One the company turned to building lorries. Approximately 100 a week were built during the war as well as producing components for De Havilland aircraft. Lorry production continued throughout the 1920s with a growing range of models from 1.5 tons to 3 tons payload capacity.
A couple of unsuccessful joint ventures with other manufacturers led the company into financial difficulties and it went into receivership in 1931. It continued to trade whilst in receivership but was struggling to survive. Finally it was taken over by Maidstone based Tilling Stevens in the late ‘thirties and production was transferred to Tilling Stevens’ Victoria Works in 1938. The Crossens factory at Southport was sold to trailer manufacturers J Brockhouse.
Under Tilling Stevens’ ownership the company became Vulcan Motors Ltd and production was stepped up. However, at the outbreak of World War Two, expansion ceased and the range was condensed to just one basic model with a choice of petrol or diesel engine. Production was stepped up again after 1945 and more models introduced but, from the end of 1950 when Rootes Group took over Tilling Stevens, Vulcan’s future was under threat and within three years production had come to an end.
