Dennis Specialist Vehicles

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For the parent car company, see Dennis (automobile).
Dennis Specialist Vehicles Limited
Industry Automotive
Successor(s) Alexander Dennis Limited (Chassis Group)
John Dennis Coachbuilders
Dennis Eagle Limited
Founded 1895 (1895)
Founder(s) Dennis Brother
Headquarters Guildford, England
Parent Hestair Group (1972-1989)
Trinity Holdings (1989-1998)
Mayflower Corporation (1998-2004)
The traditional Dennis badge applied to vehicles manufactured by the company.
Dennis Pax flatbed truck
A UMW-Dennis Lance in Singapore, Duple Metsec bodied.
Dennis Lance bus in Aldershot and District Traction Company livery
Dennis Lancet bus in Aldershot & District livery
Dennis Loline III bus
A Dennis Loline with Northern Counties lowbridge body.
Kowloon Motor Bus's air-conditioned Dennis Dragon
Kowloon Motor Bus's Dennis Trident 3 with Duple Metsec DM5000 body.
New World First Bus's 12m Trident 3 (1220).
Dennis Sabre fire engine, Hong Kong Fire Services Department.

Dennis Specialist Vehicles Limited was a major British coachbuilder and manufacturer of specialised commercial vehicles based in Guildford, England. The company was best known as the manufacturer of fire engines, although its other major product lines were buses, dustcarts and airport service vehicles.

History

Originally known as Dennis Brothers Ltd, the company was founded in 1895 by John (1871–1939) and Raymond (1878–1939) Dennis who made Speed King bicycles[1] which they sold from their shop, the Universal Athletic Stores, in Guildford. They made their first motor vehicle in 1898, and in 1899, their first car; though shown at the National Cycle Show, it was never produced or sold.[2] They entered car production around 1900.[3] About this time John Dennis built the Rodboro Buildings, the first purpose-built motor vehicle factory in Britain, to manufacture motorcars in the centre of Guildford.[4] Larger models followed with a 35 hp (26 kW; 35 PS) model in 1906 powered by a White and Poppe engine; this power unit soon fitted to all their models. Commercial vehicle activity was increasing with the first bus being made in 1903 and fire engine in 1908. Cars soon took second place and it is doubtful if any were made after about 1915. In 1913 Dennis moved to a larger factory at Woodbridge, on the outskirts of Guildford. In 1919 Dennis bought White and Poppe and transferred engine production from Coventry to Guildford. The Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services owns a pumper that was built by Dennis Brothers and delivered to the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore in 1925 from England.[5] In 1972 the company was acquired by Hestair Group and renamed Hestair Dennis after a few years of financial difficulties. It was sold to Trinity Holdings (formed from a management buyout from Hestair Group) in 1989 and then to Mayflower Corporation in October 1998.

As of 1990s, the company was no longer a single integrated whole, but was three independent businesses which their parent company is Dennis Group plc, namely:

  • Dennis Fire - manufacturer of fire appliances.
  • Dennis Bus - manufacturer of buses and other public transport vehicles
  • Dennis Eagle - manufacturer of dustcarts/refuse lorries (municipal vehicles). This company also incorporated the remains of the Eagle Engineering and Shelvoke and Drewry concerns.

Dennis Group plc also owned Duple Metsec, the bus bodywork builder which usually supplied body kits for assembly overseas.

Mayflower Corporation sold Dennis Eagle in July 1999 and purchased by Ros Roca in 2006. Dennis Bus and Dennis Fire were incorporated into Transbus International (now Alexander Dennis) in 2001.

Products

Buses

1926–1967
  • E/EV (front-engined single decker)
  • F/FS (bonneted single decker)
  • G/GL (bonneted small capacity bus)
  • H/HS/HV (front-engined double decker)
  • Dart (bonneted small capacity bus)
  • Arrow (front-engined single decker)
  • Lancet/Lancet 2/Lancet 3/Lancet 4 (front-engined single decker)
  • Lance/Lance 2/Lance 3 (front-engined double decker)
  • Ace (front-engined small capacity bus)
  • Mace (front-engined small capacity bus)
  • Falcon (front-engined small capacity bus)
  • Pike
  • Dominant (underfloor-engined single decker)
  • Lancet UF (underfloor-engined single decker)
  • Pelican (underfloor-engined light-weight single decker)
  • Loline
1977–2000

Fire engines

  • N-Type 1905-1920s
  • G-Type
  • D series
  • DS series - 1980s-1990s
  • F series
  • R series
  • RS series - 1978-1990s
  • SS series - 1980s-1990s
  • DF series
  • DFS series
  • TF series
  • TSD series
  • Sabre - 1990s-2007
  • Rapier - 1990s-?
  • Dagger - ?-2007

Trucks

Between wars
  • Ace
  • Max
  • Max Major
Post war
  • Pax
  • Horia
  • Centaur
  • Jubilant
  • Stork
  • Hefty
  • Condor
  • Heron
  • Paravan
  • Maxim
  • Delta

Other vehicles

Joint ventures

  • UMW-Dennis Specialist Vehicles - joint venture with UMW Corporation, based in Malaysia (1995–2002)
  • Thomas Dennis Company LLC - joint venture with Thomas Built Buses, based in the United States (1999–2003)

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dennis Specialist Vehicles.
  • Alexander Dennis - now "owns" Dennis Bus and Dennis Fire
  • John Dennis Coachbuilders

References

  1. ↑ Wise, David Burgess. "Dennis: Bicycles, Motor Cycles, and Fire Engines", in Ward, Ian, executive editor. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 5, p.527.
  2. ↑ Wise, p.527.
  3. ↑ Wise, p.527.
  4. ↑ History
  5. ↑ Govindarajulu, Priyanka (April 13, 2011). "This Dennis is far from being a menace". The Hindu. Retrieved 2013-11-28. 
  6. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01q04ry/Great_British_Railway_Journeys_Series_4_Portsmouth_to_Gomshall/

External links


Dennis vehicles
Buses
Fire engines
Trucks
  • Ace
  • Centaur
  • Condor
  • Delta
  • Hefty
  • Heron
  • Horia
  • Jubilant
  • Max
  • Max Major
  • Maxim
  • Paravan
  • Pax
  • Stork
Category
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