Animation.gif (24085 bytes)


The Villiers Engineering Co. Ltd.

Other Products

The Curator is pleased to display here some things other than engines which Villiers made.  How many such other things there were, he has no idea.  But here are some that are known about.
This pedal, photographed on a Sunbeam bicycle at the National Cycle Museum, would have been made by Villiers.  Then they started making freewheels.
Something else Villiers were in to was petrol stoves.  So far we do not know when they started making them, or why, or when they stopped making them.  But here are some, all of them found in the John Shaw and Sons catalogue for 1939:
This is the "Mar-Vil".  It had a single burner and could boil a quart of water in less than 4 minutes. 

The finish is black enamel and chromium plate.  The back and side shields, and the legs, all folded down.

This is the "Inferno", which had two burners and a plate rack.  (These days an advertiser would have to add "plates not included").  Its materials and finish are the same as the Mar-Vil but Shaws add that this is made out of strong sheet steel - presumably the Mar-Vil was as well.  The Inferno "shuts down like an attaché case in one minute".
This is the "Farmer's Glory".  It cost the same as the Inferno and performed the same.  But it does not seem to fold up.  The only difference noticeable in Shaw's text is that in this case they mention that the burners "can be regulated from powerful flame to gentle simmer".
Charles Palfreeman tells us that the name "Mar-Vil" was also used for a stationary engine made in collaboration between Marston and Villiers.  This suggests that this stove may have originated in some such co-operation.

Then, of course, there is the matter of outboard engines.  Seagull outboards seem originally to have been made by Sunbeam.  But there is a Seagull outboard engine in Bantock House Museum in Wolverhampton which was given to them as a Villiers outboard.  The name prominently displayed on it is Villiers.  Locally it has been assumed that it was, at least originally, a Villiers product.  But it now turns out that this was not.  It is only one of the myriad of things which used a Villiers product within it.  Charles Palfreeman tells me that the outboard was designed by Marston's and that the engine used the Villiers magneto and continued to do so for decades.  We eagerly await publication of his full findings. 
 


Return to Stationary    Engines

Return to the beginning

Proceed to Technical Details