More about Martin Walterand the Dormobiles they made |
Dormoile Introduction > About Martin-Walter Ltd. |
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Martin-Walter Ltd. was founded in 1773 as harness manufacturers. As the company grew they expanded to the building of carriages and coaches then later into automobile bodies. During the early 1950's vehicle camping holidays became very popular in the UK. Martin-Walter changed its focus from coach building to camper (caravan) conversions starting with the 1954 Bedford CA (a small van). Dormobile conversions became popular and conversions were built into several different marques. The first Land Rover conversion was made sometime between 1958 and 1960. Dormobile conversions were usually made to order from a list of options and sold directly to customer with the vehicle manufacturer's warranty intact. Martin Walters converted a large variety of small vans and station wagons. Though in America, Land Rover and Volkswagen Dormobiles are by far the most common, the majority of Dormobiles are built on Bedford trucks. Bedford is the truck division of Vauxhall Motors. By the late 1960's vehicle camping was decreasing in popularity and the company changed its focus to building Mini & Midi buses with very few Dormobile conversions made after 1970. The company closed its doors in 1994.
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Copyright 1996, 2004 by John Hess, 2005 by TeriAnn Wakeman and John Hess All rights reserved
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