V. E. Freestone and A. J. Webb founded the business in 1923 in workshops at Unity Works, Brentfield Road, Stonebridge Park, Willesden, where it stayed for its entire life. Freestone had learnt his trade at Crossley Motors and Webb had trained in France. They made bodies for Rolls-Royce and Bentley, but also for Alfa Romeo, Packard and Mercedes-Benz, and developed the style known as “Top hat” and popularised the “Razor Edge” style.
They delivered up to fifteen cars a year, and won the Gold Medal in the private coachbuilders’ competition at the London Motor Show nine years in a row. In the Second World War they made wing tips for the Spitfire. After the war Rolls-Royce offered a complete steel-bodied car, the Bentley Mark VI, and orders fell. Webb died in 1955, the Swain Group took over in 1957, and it became a pure showroom brand in 1958. It was sold to the new owners of Harold Radford in 1963.
