Edward Dixon Abbott had worked in the design department of Wolseley Motors before he joined the coachbuilders Page and Hunt as London sales manager. When Page and Hunt failed in 1929 he took over their Farnham works and formed a new company under his own name. Early orders were mostly for commercial vehicles, which kept the business afloat through the Depression, though some car bodies continued, including on the Austin Seven, Daimler and Talbot. From 1931 Abbott took a stand each year at the London Motor Show.
He also built a glider, the Farnham Sailplane, and formed Abbott-Baynes Sailplanes in 1931. In 1934 Abbott won a major contract from Lagonda to supply all the bodies for the new small Rapier, and did work for Frazer-Nash on BMW chassis. After the war the company built production runs of coupes for Sunbeam-Talbot and Healey, plus some special bodies for Jowett, Bentley and Lanchester.
Large orders from Ford for Consul and Zephyr estate cars kept the firm going in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but the days of the special coachbuilder were numbered. Orders declined through the 1960s and the company closed in 1972. It also converted the Ford Capri to a convertible in 1970.
