1915 Aston Martin Coal Scuttle

1915 Aston Martin Coal Scuttle

Aston Martin
The company was founded in 1914 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Their first car was built in 1915 and named the Coal Scuttle. The two had joined forces as Bamford & Martin the previous year to sell cars made by Singer from London and decided to make their own vehicles. The first was created by Martin by fitting a four-cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine to the chassis of a 1908 Isotta-Fraschini. They produced their first car in March 1915. Production would not begain till 1920 because of the outbreak of World War I. (1914-1918). After the war the company was refounded at Abingdon Road, Kensington and a new car designed to carry the Aston-Martin name. Bamford left in 1920 and the company was revitalised with funding from Count Louis Zborowski. In 1922. The company went bankrupt in 1924. The factory closed in 1926, with Lionel Martin leaving.

The Origin of The Name
The company name was derived from the fact that Lionel Martin raced at the Aston Clinton hill climb in Aston Clinton village in Buckinghamshire, England between Tring and Aylesbury. from 1904 to 1925, Aston hill, part of the Lord Rothschild's Estate, was a renowned motoring venue. Lionel Martin made his first ascent of this hill in a tuned Singer Car on 4th, April, 1914. Shortly afterwards, on the 16th. May, at the Herts County Automobile & Aero Club meeting he was so successful, that the sporting light car first registered in his name in March 1915, was called an "ASTON-MARTIN". it was the start of a legend in the history of the automobile.

Lionel Martin's first hill climb in an 'Aston' prototype in 1914


Lionel Martin co-founder	Robert Bamford co-founder


	This plaque was placed at the Aston Clinton hill by the Aston Martin Owners Club and Aston Martin Lagonda Limited.

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