Freestone and Webb were an English coachbuilder, most notably for Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars.
The company was formed in 1923 by V.E. Freestone and A.J. Webb as a specialist coachbuilding service, based in workshops in Brentfield Road, Willesden, North London, which became its home for its entire life. Freestone had learnt his trade for working at Crossley Motors, while Webb had returned to England having trained in France.[1]
Concentrating only on bespoke Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars, they developed the style known as Top hat, and popularised the Razor Edge style. Delivering up to 15 cars per annum, they began showing at the London Motor Show, and won the Gold Medal in the private coachbuilders competition nine years in a row.[1]
Like many independent manufacturers during World War II, they became a shadow factory, producing highly detailed and intricate wing tips for the Supermarine Spitfire.[1]
Post World War II, Rolls-Royce decided to offer a complete car inhouse, resulting from 1946 in the Bentley Mark VI, and the Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith. Although then still offering a chassis-only option, orders to Freestone and Webb tumbled, and the company began to suffer financial difficulties.[1]
On the death of A.J. Webb in 1955, the company was taken over by the Swain Group, who owned motor dealer H.R. Owen of Berkeley Street, London. This was the same year as the introduction of the Bentley S1/Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, neither of which came as a chassis only option. With its main chassis supplier relationship now ended, it continued to refurbish and build bodies until 1958, when it became a pure showroom brand. In 1963, after Swain decided to divest itself of its coach building arm and focus just on motor retail, it was sold in 1963 to the new owners of fellow coachbuilders Harold Radford.[2]
Subsequently dropped as a registered limited company and brand name, it was reregistered at Companies House in 1990 by an enthusiast owner, who sold it together with his 1953 Bentley 3.5 Saloon at an auction at Brooklands, on June 2, 2010.[3]