Bentall

E. H. Bentall & Co. traced its agricultural-machinery business to William Bentall's 1805 Heybridge works, but its automobile chapter began a century later under Edmund Ernest Bentall. After experimenting with two family-retained prototype cars in 1904 and further prototypes using Crypto frames and Lemoine axles in 1905, Bentall developed its own chassis and petrol engines and exhibited a production design at the 1906 Olympia Show. Local coachbuilders Mannions of Chelmsford and Adams of Colchester supplied bodies, while Acre Autocar represented the marque in London and Glovers of Witham in Essex. The cars ranged from compact twin-cylinder 9 HP and 11 HP models to increasingly large four-cylinder 16 HP, 16/20 HP and 18 HP machines, identifiable by their circular radiators. High prices and a reported £60,000 tooling investment prevented commercial success; roughly 100 cars were built before production ended around 1912–1913. The parent agricultural company continued, eventually becoming Bentall Simplex and closing after Acrow's 1984 failure, but those later industrial products do not extend the automobile marque. Two Bentall cars are reported to survive.

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