Croydon Heritage: Cars for the 'common man' made in Purley

The Trojan car was made by inventor Leslie Haywood Hounsfield, one of Croydon’s forgotten geniuses.

The entrepreneur began designing the car in 1904 at the age of 27, and in 1910 the first prototype was made.

He wanted to build a car that was easy to drive and economical to buy.

The company Trojan Limited was established in Vicarage Road, Croydon, but the premises soon became too small for production and they moved to Purley Way in 1929.

The car giants Leyland bought the license to manufacture the Trojan in 1921, paying a royalty of £5 per vehicle.

Production was slow at first but quickly picked up, and by 1924 it had become available as a light van and a car – 17,000 vehicles were built.

Prospective owners were reeled in by the advertising slogans of the day: “The car for the man who can’t afford a car” and “Can you afford to walk?”.

The Trojan cost just £157, £8 less than a baby Austin.

The Brooke Bond Tea Company used the vans for their deliveries and was the largest commercial operator of the Trojan.

The car was immortalised by Dinky Toys who produced miniature models of the Trojan in the Brooke Bond livery.

Sales of the car began to fall off and from 1935 only commercial vehicles were produced.

The vans were made right up until the outbreak of the Second World War and restarted again in 1948 and 1960.

The company had a brief resurgence in 1960 with the advent of the bubble car which was the last car to bear the Trojan name.

Mr Hounsfield left the company in 1930 to pursue other inventions.

He moved to Croydon permanently, living at 81 Moreland Road, and he set up a workshop in his back garden.

He began work on the Tensometer, a device for measuring the strain on metals before they broke.

During the war it became a vital piece of equipment, used in measuring aircraft parts.

It is still used today as a design icon for a piece of testing equipment.

Another of Leslie Hounsfield’s successes was the Safari campbed which he started manufacturing when he worked at Trojan.

He set up a company called Morland Engineering and continued to manufacture the beds out of his back garden.

It became hugely popular over a course of hot summers in the 1930s with demand outstripping supply, prompting him to sell the rights to a Scottish camping company.

Local historian Brian Roote, who has extensively researched Leslie Hounsfield and his creations, remembers visiting the inventor’s workshop when he was a child.

He said: “My father was employed there in the later years of his working life and I remember going to see him in the tiny workshop. The house became a petrol filling station at one stage, and later a used car lot.”

The inventor lived in Croydon for the rest of his life, becoming actively involved in local societies, and eventually dying at the age of 80 in 1957.

He was cremated at Mitcham Road Cemetery.

Do you have a story of Croydon's past to tell? Let our heritage reporter Kirsty Whalley know on 020 8330 5995.