Heybridge and Maldon still have substantial reminders of the former huge local employer, E.H. Bentall & Co, famous for their ironworks and manufacture of agricultural machinery.

The company later diversified its output, and in the 1900's made a valiant attempt to compete in the exciting new world of motor vehicle manufacture.

Heybridge was however never destined to become another Dunton or Dagenham (perhaps thankfully), but the story is an interesting chapter in the early history of British motor vehicles.

We shouldn't be surprised that agriculture led to motor cars – mechanisation of agriculture was big business, and the first all-British car, Austin's Wolseley, emerged from the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company. The bicycle industry was also a natural lead into car production.

E.E. Bentall was the first car owner in the Maldon area. Bentalls already made a petrol engine for agriculture, and this led to two prototype cars being built in 1904 under chief engineer Ernie Lynett (who started off as Mr Bentall's chauffeur). These used a lot of components bought in from elsewhere, including the chassis, axles and gearbox.

In 1905 they decided to go into full production with their own foundry producing most of the components (after the first six cars a Bentall-designed chassis was used). In 1906 they announced a range of eight, eleven and sixteen horsepower cars.

A Bentall test model with a workman at the controls. A packing case is being used as part of the seat and the fascia board is merely a piece of plywood! (Photo courtesy of Cliff Pratt)

At this point a fateful decision was taken: an "oversquare" engine configuration was chosen. This means that the bore of the cylinder is larger than the distance travelled by the piston. "Square" and "undersquare" engines became much more the norm, and the already expensive Bentall cars were subject to higher tax when horsepower tax was introduced because of this design.

Bodywork was produced elsewhere, including Mannions of Chelmsford and Adams of Colchester, while the distinctive round radiator was made in France by Molineaux.

With its round radiator, the Bentall car could easily be mistaken for a Delaunay-Belleville. (Photo courtesy of Cliff Pratt)

Production ceased in 1912, after only about a hundred cars had been built. The niche engine design, and competitive price of other cars meant that the company could not even recoup its initial £60,000 outlay on tooling. The decision was made to stick to their strengths of stationary engines and farm equipment.

Two cars survive. One was purchased and restored by Bentalls plc of Kingston upon Thames (a department store unrelated to the Heybridge Bentall). It came to the area in 2008 to celebrate its centenary at the Langford Museum of Power.

Another was identified by John Parker in Maldon Museum's "Penny Farthing" Newsletter in 2005. He had been contacted by an Australian, who sent pictures of a bright yellow two-seater which had recently been restored in North Dandenong, Victoria. This is a very early model probably dating from 1905/6.

Ernest Linnet at the wheel of a 1908 Bentall in the Bentall yard, summer 1955. (Photo courtesy of the Miss Ann Jordan Collection)

How good were the cars? The late Ernest Linnett, who worked with the firm from the age of thirteen until 1951, said it was a beautiful car with superb components, but "too much of a luxury job" to be a commercial proposition.

A driver of the restored car says that its performance in top gear is disappointing, and gives up at "the slightest sniff of a hill", although it can crawl up them in low gear. It seems the company never marketed the cars much beyond Essex, so perhaps our gentle countryside (Market Hill excepted!) was the best environment for them.

Although the Bentall car was a dead end, the Australian discovery means that they have a 2% survival rate, surprisingly high for any car. Perhaps a third lies in some long forgotten barn or shed?