S H Newsome & Co Ltd of Coventry - Triumph Car Dealers 44

S H Newsome & Co Ltd of Coventry are the feature business in this article.

S H Newsome & Co Ltd letterhead from 1948

S.H.Newsome & Co Ltd, Coventry advert in Autocar 21 October 1960

S H Newsome Corporation Street, Coventry 1965

The S H Newsome Corporation Street, Coventry showroom can be seen in the background to this photo from 1965. The showroom was a large glass fronted building with showrooms over two floors.

Corporation Street, St John the Baptist's Church and environs, Coventry, 1931 from the air with the S H Newsome building facing an empty plot.

S H Newsome - the founder

Samuel Herbert Newsome known as Sammy Newsome was born 1901 in Coventry the son of Samuel Theo Newsome (1868-1930), a watch manufacturer, and his wife Kate.  He was educated at Oundle School, Peterborough before serving an apprenticeship at Calthorpe Motor Co.

The S H Newsome & Co was established 1923 and built the Warwick car.  Later he moved into the theatrical business. The Coventry Hippodrome was renamed the Coventry Theatre during his time as owner and manager.

S.H. Newsome's Pantomime Parade - 1954

I am indebted to Grace's Guide for much of the information in this biographical section.

SS 100 DHC

SS 100 DHC from 16 May 1939 Motor magazine

During 1938 S.H. "Sammy" Newsome at the time a successful SS Jaguar Distributor who had been very successfully campaigning an SS 100 in Rallies & Hill climbs asked William Lyons to build a deluxe version of the popular SS 100 sports car.

Lyons reportedly told Newsome he already had too many different models to build.  Newsome contracted with the factory for 50 bare SS 100 chassis to build his idea for a deluxe SS 100 DHC with roll up windows & a wider body. Early in 1939 he has Avon Coach builders of Coventry build 2 prototypes.

World war 2 cancelled any further production

I am indebted to http://www.strever.com/avon/ from where I found this information in this section about the SS100 DHC.

Sky Blue Spitfire

Bobby Gould taking delivery of his Spitfire

It was reported in the Standard Triumph Review of November 1967: Bobby Gould, Coventry City centre forward takes delivery of a Triumph Spitfire 3 from Mr. D. Harty of S. H. Newsome and Co. Ltd., Coventry Distributors of Triumph cars. The Spitfire was· in Wedgwood blue - very appropriate for a 'Sky Blues' player.

Police chase TR5

Police chase Triumph TR5

Said to be the first of many petrol injection TR5's on order by police forces throughout the country is shown here being handed over by Mr. Paul Newsome of S. H. Newsome Ltd., Triumph Distributors,
Coventry, to the former Traffic Superintendent of Coventry City Police, Mr. Tom Norton sometime in 1969. The car was used on the A45.

Not just Triumphs

S H Newsome & Co Ltd acted as distributors for Jaguar, Daimler and Bond motor cars, Leyland light commercial vehicles and Ferguson tractors in addition Standard Triumph products.

Not just Coventry

S H Newsome had a branch on Lawford Road Rugby.

Show and Service Week promotions

Staff from Standard Triumph HQ visited the business and assisted the firm with week long Show and Service promotions.  These were held by the firm at their Corporation Street premises on 27th June to 1st July 1960 and at their Kenpas Highway premises on 23rd until 27th November 1964.

Taken over by Henly's

In April 1968 Henlys Ltd acquired the shares S H Newsome and Co Ltd following on from Mr S H Newsome  retiring owing to ill health. His brother, Mr. A. J. Newsome also leave the business as that time.

Triumph car dealers in Coventry

April 1951
The distributor was S H Newsome & Co. Ltd, Corporation Street
Dealers were:
Coventry Garage Limited, Holyhead Road
H Crane, 127 Far Gosford Street
Guyers (Coventry) Ltd, Greyfriars Lane
Parkside Garage Ltd, Warwick Road
H Payne (Coventry) Ltd, 11 Ford Street

In 1968 the Coventry area distributor was S H Newsome and Co. Ltd., with their
Sales, Service and Spares: Highway Garage, Kenpas Highway.
Repair Dept.: Quinton Road, Coventry.

Other Triumph dealers listed as at 1968 in Coventry.
Blamire, P., Queen's Road Garage. 
Cheylesmore Garage (Coventry) Ltd., Daventry Road.
Parkgate Garages Ltd, Parkgate Road, Holbrooks
R.E.S. Motors (Coventry) Ltd., Paynes Lane. 
Ryton Motors Ltd., London Road, Ryton-on-Dunsmore.

Plea for information

If you have any more information or recollections about S H Newsome & Co Ltd of Coventry photos of window stickers, dealer badges or sill plates etc please let me know. I can be contacted via the comments to this post or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stephen.weblin

Further information and sources

NEWSOME S.H. Standard Triumph Dealership a post on the Standard Triumph Works Directory website

Link to the other articles in this series.

Link to face book page: Triumph Car Dealers.

Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr gallery of images I have found on Flickr.

I have a collection of Standard Triumph car dealer directories: http://vitessesteve.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/triumph-car-dealer-directories.html

Picture credits: S.H.Newsome & Co Ltd, Coventry advert in Autocar 21 October 1960; S.H. Newsome's Pantomime Parade - 1954 image from the http://www.its-behind-you.com/pantoanncomics.html; S H Newsome Corporation Street, Coventry 1965 iamge from the Historic Coventry forum; Bobby Gould taking delivery of his Spitfire and Police chase Triumph TR5 images from Standard Triumph Review; Corporation Street, St John the Baptist's Church and environs, Coventry, 1931 image from Britain From Above website; S H Newsome Lawford Road Rugby photo posted to facebook by Mick Masters.