Galloway (car)
Encyclopedia
Galloway was a British car maker founded in 1920 as a subsidiary company to Arrol-Johnston
Arrol-Johnston
Arrol-Johnston was an early Scottish manufacturer of automobiles, which operated from 1896 to 1931 and produced the first automobile manufactured in Britain...

. It was based at first at Tongland
Tongland
Tongland is a small village about 2 miles north of Kirkcudbright, south west Scotland. It lies on the west bank of the Dee near its confluence with the Tarff Water.-History:...

, Kirkcudbrightshire
Kirkcudbrightshire
The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright or Kirkcudbrightshire was a county of south-western Scotland. It was also known as East Galloway, forming the larger Galloway region with Wigtownshire....

, and from 1923 at Heathall, Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...

. It closed in 1928.

History

The company was very unusual in the world of car making in that it was largely run and staffed by women. For a while the cars were advertised as "a car made by ladies for others of their sex". The factory had originally been built as a wartime aero engine plant and T. C. Pullinger, the manager of Arrol-Johnston, was persuaded by his daughter Dorothée Pullinger
Dorothée Pullinger
Dorothée Aurélie Marianne Pullinger MBE AMI MECHE was an Anglo-French automobile engineer and businesswoman, and a pioneering woman engineer....

 to keep the factory open to provide local employment. She was made a director of the new enterprise and set up training courses and apprenticeships specifically for local women. The apprenticeships were to last for three rather than the usual five years as the girls were thought to be better at attending and quicker learners than boys.

The factory was near the River Dee and a dam was built fitted with water turbines to provide power, supplemented by a steam engine. It also had two tennis courts on the roof.

The cars were sturdy and straight forward and a one model policy was pursued with, at first, the 10/20, which was heavily influenced by the Fiat 501
Fiat 501
The Fiat 501 is a car produced by Fiat between 1919 and 1926. The 501 was Fiat's first model after World War I. In 1921came sport versions S and SS. Fiat produced 47,600 examples.- Engines :-References:...

.

It was not however a good time to launch a new car and only a few hundred were made before the Tongland factory was forced to close in 1923 and production moved to the parent works at Heathall which had plenty of spare capacity. The Tongland factory was later used to make silk.

A second, larger, Galloway model, the 12, essentially an Arrol-Johnston, replaced the 10/20 in 1925 and remained in production until Arrol-Johnston itself closed in 1928 and Galloway Motors was formerly wound up. Dorothée went on to run a laundry in Croydon.

Model range

  • 1920-1925 Galloway 10/20 1460 cc Straight-4 side valve
  • 1925-1929 Galloway 12 1669 cc Straight-4 side valve

Galloway 10/20

Designed by T. C. Pullinger and Fred Neale from Hillman
Hillman
Hillman is a British automobile marque created by the Hillman Motor Car Company, founded in 1907. The company was based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, England. Before 1907 the company had built bicycles...

, and heavily influenced by the Fiat 501, the 10/20 used a straight four, side valve engine of 1460 cc driving the rear wheels through either a three or four speed gearbox in unit with the engine. Suspension was by semi elliptic leaf springs at the front and quarter elliptic springs at the rear.

Galloway 12, 12/30 and 12/50

The engine for the 12 (later called the 12/30 and 12/50) was an Arrol-Johnston unit shared with that makes 12hp model. On test by The Motor magazine a top speed of 51 mph was achieved. Four wheel brakes were fitted were fitted from 1926 when the name was changed from 12 to 12/30. The car was offered for between GBP325 and 360 depending on body which was expensive when compared with the likes of Morris and Austin.
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