A VINTAGE vehicle restoration project gave a Westbury engineering firm “a real insight into what it was like to build and drive a 1930’s horse box”.
Spectra Specialist Engineering Ltd on the West Wilts Trading Estate, worked constantly for two years on the body, engine and chassis of the 1937 Bedford WLG with Vincent 2 stall body, which, the firm said, was in “very poor condition.
“Eighty years of British weather had rotted the timber body,” George Smith from George Smith Horseboxes, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Spectra, told White Horse News. “There was however enough of the body left to restore the vehicle back to original specification. This included exact matching of the oak, ash, elm and Douglas fir sections to replicate the original in every detail.”
The first motorised horse box was built by Vincents of Reading in 1912. They were an established coach builder in both car and commercial vehicle bodywork.
“All the early horse boxes were built in a traditional way using seasoned timber and offered mostly rear facing travel for the horses while their rivals, Lambourn, promoted forward facing travel.
“Any of today’s horse box drivers would recognise the layout and features of horse boxes from those early days,” George said.
“The pre-war coach builders were highly skilled people and in homage to them we decided to restore the earliest horse box we could find.”
Once completed, the vehicle drove again under its own power, all 27 horse power. Its first outing was to the Bath and West Show where it took pride of place with new vehicles on Spectra’s trade stand.
George said, “This has been an extremely satisfying project.”
