Peter Pellandine and Keith Waddington founded Ashley Laminates in 1955, naming it after Pellandine’s house in Woodford Green. They set up a small factory in a garage next to the Robin Hood Inn at Loughton, Essex, making glass-fibre bodies for specials, along with everything a special-builder might need, from radiators and lighting sets to suspension parts and wheels. The first body, the Ashley 750, fitted the Austin Seven chassis, and the Sports Racer that followed was designed for the track.
Pellandine left in late 1956 to found Falcon Shells. Ashley moved to larger premises at Upshire in 1958, keeping Loughton as a showroom, and introduced the 1172, a roadster body for Ford 8 and 10 chassis with the 1,172 cc side-valve engine, together with its own Regent chassis. The Sportiva followed in 1960, and in 1961 the company moved to Harlow.
A change in the tax rules killed the specials market, and body production ended in 1962, although Ashley continued to make glass-fibre hardtops and bonnets for cars such as the Austin-Healey Sprite and Jaguar E-type. Renamed Ashley Auto Improvements and based in Bishop’s Stortford, the company lasted until 1972. The rights to the 1172 body went to Autocars of Israel, and it became the Sabra and the Reliant Sabre.
