Accles-Turrell

Accles-Turrell was an English automobile identity created when pioneer motorist Charles McRobie Turrell joined the Birmingham engineering company Accles Ltd in 1899. The first car was a compact 3 HP two-seater light carriage, built at Perry Barr, with an Accles single-cylinder engine and an Arthur Mulliner body. Its belt drive led to a three-speed gearbox and then by chain to the rear wheels; the claimed maximum speed was 20 mph. In 1901 the company developed a materially larger four-seat 10/15 HP car, described in period language as the New Turrell. It used a flat-twin engine beneath the front seat and a two-speed constant-mesh gearbox driving the rear wheels. The larger car's rights passed to Pollock Ltd. of Ashton-under-Lyne, so later Pollock manufacture and the Autocar Construction Company's Hermes badge are related successor identities rather than extra Accles-Turrell models. The company geography accordingly reflects the transition from Perry Barr to Ashton-under-Lyne, not two unrelated marques. Accles and Pollock soon combined their industrial interests in tube manufacture as Accles & Pollock; that concern's later tubing business and the modern ownership of the brand do not extend automobile production. No reliable output ledger, serial range, detailed dimensions, price list or survivor census is available for either car. The defensible automobile taxonomy is limited to the 3 HP two-seater and the 10/15 HP New Turrell, with the rights transfer, Hermes continuation and non-automobile tube business kept explicit.

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