In the mid-1970s, Woodall Nicholson bravely took on the Princess…
IT has to be said that the Princess would not be the first car to spring to mind if considering a stretch-conversion, not least due to its rising shoulder-line, which would surely result in rather awkward lines. Well, coachbuilders Woodall Nicholson were not daunted: after all, the Princess was the natural successor to their previous Landcrab-based limousine, and to be fair, the finished product was far better-looking than one might have expected it to be.
And of course, with these cars being aimed primarily at (provincial) funeral directors there was a hearse-bodied counterpart; most of these have met long-since met their doom on the UK’s banger racing circuits, although one example which turned up on the Autotrader website in March 2002 had suffered a quite different fate!
The limousine was marketed as the Woodall Nicholson Kirklees, taking its name from an administrative district located in the vicinity of the company’s Halifax premises. However, in popular parlance it would inevitably be known as the Stretch Princess, and even provided the inspiration for the name of a little-known rock band, formed in London in the late 1990s and apparently still going strong.
As lead singer Jo Lloyd explains on the band’s website: ‘In England, there’s a car called an Austin Princess. It’s an ugly, funny car that, for some reason, they made into a limousine so it became a ‘Stretch’ Princess. It sounds glamorous and yet it’s kind of tacky.’ The Stretch Princess website also amusingly describes the Kirklees as ‘a luxury edition of the UK’s answer to the AMC Gremlin’. Hmmm…
Is the Editor of the Parkers website and price guide, formerly editor of Classic Car Weekly, and launch editor/creator of Modern Classics magazine. Has contributed to various motoring titles including Octane, Practical Classics, Evo, Honest John, CAR magazine, Autocar, Pistonheads, Diesel Car, Practical Performance Car, Performance French Car, Car Mechanics, Jaguar World Monthly, MG Enthusiast, Modern MINI, Practical Classics, Fifth Gear Website, Radio 4, and the the Motoring Independent...
Likes 'conditionally challenged' motors and taking them on unfeasible adventures all across Europe.
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Oh, yes – that is a bit of me!
That isn’t unpleasant looking. The extra length helps the Princess lines.
I worked at Woodhalls for 16 years and left when Coleman n Milne moved production to Bolton.
Coleman’s skill and build quality could never match Woodhall.
I do remember Coleman Milne being mostly converters of Fords as the big Fords of the seventies and eighties seemed suited to limousine conversions. One I do remember was a Ford Zodiac limo in Sheffield, which with the extra length was nearly as big as a sixties Lincoln Continental, a car it resembled in many ways.
A few years ago, the CO-OP funeral service locally had a couple of stretched Limo’s that looked like they were Mondeo’s (post 2007 model). They had oval Ford style badges on the grille & boot but black with an anonymous logo
That’s a masterpiece!
In about 2004 I remember finding one on eBay, in black with red velour interior. I was in a rock band at the time and seriously considered buying it as a gig van, mostly because the seller called it The Vampire Taxi!