File:1904 James and Browne 9hp Twin Cylinder Rear Entrance Tonneau, London to Brighton Veteran Car Run 1968 - geograph.org.uk - 723269.jpg

English: 1904 James & Browne 9hp Twin Cylinder Rear Entrance Tonneau, London to Brighton Veteran Car Run 1968 Y 182 has a truly remarkable and continuous history. Lt. Col. T B Browne established James & Browne as early as 1896 trading from a Head Office and Showroom at 395 Oxford Street, London, building cars and commercial vehicles at their factory at Youngs Corner, King Street, Hammersmith, West London, from 1901 until 1909. Mr Ernest Proctor, grandfather of the present owner of Y 182, was employed by James & Browne as an engineer at Hammersmith until 1908. Production was by no means prolific but the cars were well engineered, if not totally conventional. Indeed the James & Browne twin cylinder motor cars were highly individual with their horizontal twin cylinder, water-cooled engines, featuring bore and stroke of 4 ins x 6 ins, atmospheric inlet valves and mechanically operated exhaust valves. Cooling was thermo-syphon and the cylinders, although parallel, were widely spaced in the engine compartment. The James & Browne drove through two gearboxes, one catering for 1st, 3rd and reverse gears, linked by a sliding shaft to the second gearbox operating 2nd and 4th. Final drive was by twin side-mounted chains, the foot brake operating on the transmission and the handbrake on the rear wheels. This design was certainly introduced by James & Browne as early as 1902, as evidenced by the other known surviving James & Browne, regularly fielded on the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run by the students of Imperial College, London. Y 182 was a special order from the Rev. Dr. John Darlington, vicar of St Mark's Church, Kennington in London from 1897 - 1947. Dr Darlington owned a country house in Curry Rivel in Somerset and was married to Lilian, daughter of the Dean of Westminster. Dr Darlington was an influential figure in church circles and from a privileged background. As a pioneer motorist he had previously owned a Peugeot which his diary records let him down badly. His friend owned a reliable two-cylinder James & Browne and in 1905 he visited the James & Browne showrooms in Oxford Street asking to buy a car like the one his friend owned. Lt. Col. Browne recalls that he had to politely advise Dr. Darlington that the 9hp twin-cylinder model had become obsolete in 1903 and he offered Darlington an 18hp four-cylinder model instead. Darlington was adamant that he wanted the two-cylinder car and so it was arranged that a special order 9hp two-cylinder car be assembled for this important customer.