The following is a brief summary of the history of Tickford from its infancy as Salmons & Sons through to the present day company. For a more detailed article on the early years of Salmons & Son and the start of Tickford Limited see the following article from the quarterly magazine. Salmons To Tickford

The current Tickford company was formed in 1981 as a family member to Aston Martin Lagonda. However the companies origin stretches way back to 1820.

During 1820 a company named Salmon and Sons commenced trading in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire. This company was run from within the grounds of what used to be Tickford Abbey. Salmon and Sons were originally builders of horse drawn carriages then progressed into building very high specification quality bodies for motorised vehicles. During the early part of the nineteenth century the first vehicles were produced with ‘Tickford’ bodies. By the late 1930’s the Tickford name was synonymous with a range of extremely prestigious patented convertible hoods.

In 1942 the company was renamed Tickford Limited and continued to thrive in the specialist body building market, producing luxury bodies for many motor manufacturers. With the arrival of 1955 Tickford was acquired by David Brown, owner of Aston Martin. Numerous Astons were fitted with Tickford bodies.

During the late 1950’s the Tickford name was allowed to ‘die’. However, during 1981 it became abundantly clear to Aston Martin Lagonda that there was a growing demand for engineering and coach building skills held within the company, hence the rebirth of the Tickford company.

Tickford forced themselves back into the public view in 1981 with a very highly publicised launch of a special version of the Metro, designed by the distinguished Simon Saunders.

The metro was fitted with a body kit. Inside, the metro had leather dash, rear quarter panels. Some models were trimmed throughout in leather. There was no standard model of the metro as with many of the vehicles produced by Tickford. Basically, a purchaser could ask and receive for any level of extras providing of course the bank balance stretched that far! There were at least seventeen options specified by Tickford alone.

In 1984 over one hundred people worked for Tickford, many being highly skilled engineers and craftsmen. Expansion in this year saw the company’s turnover exceed the £3 million mark, while in this day and age £3 million may not be seen as a great deal of money, remember, this was 1984.

Tickford has three main roles, each has a separate division within the company:

• Special vehicle production.

• Coach building.

• Engineering.

The engineering division was taken over complete from A.M. Lagonda during 1981. Tickford could and still will tackle any motor engineering problem from a 200 mph racing car to an off road motor vehicle. A project can be taken through from concept to evaluation, type approval and pre-production stage.

Some of the major companies for whom Tickford have carried out projects are:

The production unit moved from Bedworth to Milton Keynes and was used as a base from which to build the Tickford Turbo Capri. It was from these premises that a number of Ford Capris’ were turned into the Turbo powered, 140 mph, with breathtaking accelerating and extrovert looking Tickford Turbo Capri. When the name Tickford is mentioned it is to this vehicle that one’s thoughts turn immediately.

After the Capri, Tickford worked with MG to created the Maestro Turbo and Ford to create the Sierra Cosworth RS500 and the road version of the RS200.

The hood on the Jaguar XJS convertible was designed by Tickford. These cars were originally converted by Tickford themselves, but it was so successful that Jaguar setup a production line to cope with demand.

In 1997 Tickford closed there production facility at Bedworth and moved to Milton Keynes. Most recently Tickford have setup a production line in Daventry to convert Ford's Puma into the Ford "Racing" Puma.

For more Tickford history see the articles from the quarterly magazine. These are available by clicking the following link or via the main menu. Tickford Articles