Engineering a car for Bond.

Byline: Denis Kilcommons

HUDDERSFIELD's industrial history is founded on engineering and textiles.

It is also responsible for James Bond being given the ride of his life in an Aston Martin DB5.

Not many people know this (to misquote Michael Caine), but if David Brown hadn't stepped in and bought the company in 1947 for pounds 20,000, the legendary car marque might have died.

I was reminded of this quirk of motoring fate by the 32-page book A Jowett Album by Rod Ward.

This is ostensibly a history of the famous cars, made at Idle, Bradford, from 1904, but it also includes a detailed appendix about other often forgotten Yorkshire vehicle makers.

Clayton and Co of Huddersfield made their first Karrier Cars in 1908. They specialised in commercial vehicles, buses and trolley buses and were successful between the two world wars.

And "Britain's rarest car" - according to the Tolson Museum in Ravensknowle Park - was the three-wheeled LSD made in Huddersfield and Mirfield between 1919 and 1924.

There is one on display in the museum's transport section. Other firms dabbled in making vehicles, such as Learoyd Bros, who soon gave it up to concentrate on what they did best: being a worsted manufacturer.

But the most famous local company to become involved was David Brown, the gear and tractor makers, that also produced the Dodson and Valveless automobiles.

Sir David Brown took over the company in 1934. He bought Aston Martin in 1947 for pounds 20,000 and Lagonda in 1948 for pounds 52,500.

He launched the Aston Martin DB1 - named after his own initials, in 1948. The DB2 had a Lagonda engine and Aston Martin went on to win Le Mans in 1957.

The DB series was a car loved by motoring enthusiasts, but did not achieve the same level of commercial success as Jaguar until 1964.

The producers of Goldfinger apparently wanted an E-Type for James Bond, but the company turned them down. David Brown has no such reservations and Bond was provided with a DB5 in one of the finest and successful marketing ploys ever.

(A Jowett Album is in the Auto Review Books series from Zeteo Publishing. It costs pounds 5 95. Contact them by phone [phone] or by email [e-mail]. Their website is www.zeteo.com).

CAPTION(S):

TOP CAR: A 1964 Aston Martin DB5 (above) and (right) one of its most famous DB5 drivers Sean Connery as James Bond (right)