James Young

James Young of Bromley built high-quality carriages and, from 1908, car bodies. Bought by Rolls-Royce dealer Jack Barclay in 1937, it built on Bentley and Rolls-Royce chassis until its last bodies on Phantom V chassis in 1968.

James Young Limited was a top-class coachbuilder in London Road, Bromley. James Young bought J. K. Hunter’s business in 1863, and built a full range of carriages, most famously the lightweight Bromley Brougham. Its first car body went on a Wolseley chassis in 1908. In the 1920s and early 1930s it built standardised bodies for Sunbeam and Talbot, along with individual commissions often on Bentley and Rolls-Royce chassis.

In 1937 Rolls-Royce dealer Jack Barclay bought the firm and persuaded A. F. “Mac” McNeil to leave J. Gurney Nutting to become chief designer, and sales rose sharply. The factory was destroyed in 1941 in the Blitz, all records were lost, and it was hit again by a V-1 after rebuilding. By the early 1960s it built 50 or 60 new bodies a year, mostly for export. About thirty-five Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and fifteen Bentley T fixed-head coupes were made in 1966 and 1967. The last bodies were made on Rolls-Royce Phantom V chassis in 1968.