PIONEER COACH WORKS and WARWICK COACH WORKS
William Hurford opened his Pioneer Coach Works in Albion Street in 1872.In 1874, he employed William Flitcroft who had arrived in Australia with his parents in 1863 and, after serving his apprenticeship in Brisbane, travelled to Warwick by bullock wagon. Five years later, when Hurford left Warwick to start another coach works in Toowoomba, he appointed William as his manager. William went on to purchase the business in 1886, earning a reputation for high quality work and going on to win numerous prizes in Brisbane, Tenterfield, Stanthorpe, Allora, and other centres in Southern Queensland.
Flitcrofts Coach Works display at the Warwick Exhibition Building in 1904 (State Library of Queensland).
In the 1890s, Flitcroft was joined by his son John William who eventually became a partner, managing the business when William retired to Brisbane in 1920, following the death of his wife. John William eventually took over the business completely in 1928.
William’s other sons (Seth, William Jnr and Harold) also became coach builders and the business began to do car repairs and body work, the earliest probably being the body for the ambulance van's 70 hp 8 cylinder chassis in 1915. This continued through the 1930s until John William retired to Brisbane in May 1941.
The site was later occupied by Frank Kelly, an autobody builder, who took on Bruce Shelley as an apprentice in 1974. Bruce later bought Frank out and Shelley’s Industries in 2022 continues to make small truck bodies and tray tops. Modifications have been made to the gable at some point in its history and a large shed and shop have since been added to the premises, but parts of the original shed and its roof are still there.
Shelley’s Industries in Albion St still includes remnants of the original 1872 Pioneer Coach works.
William's half brother, John Thomas Flitcroft, was also a coach worker with his own business in Grafton Street.
He was born in Brisbane and probably learnt the coach building trade working from William in Warwick in the mid to late 1880s. In July 1909, he bought the Warwick Coach Works in Grafton St from R. Johnson, making it clear in advertisement in the Warwick Daily that his business had no connection with the Albion St coach works with the Flitcroft name.
Warwick Coach Works, Grafton St, c. 1923 (State Library of Queensland)
Within four months of his purchasing Johnson’s business, much of the Warwick Coach Works was destroyed as the result of a fire in Huxley’s General Store next door, but John Thomas continued to operate his business, changing the name to the Warwick Coach Factory in 1923. The following year, he moved into the motor car business and became an agent for Nash cars.
John Thomas died suddenly in 1926 but the business continued to operate under the Flitcroft name as J. T. Flitcroft Motor Service Ltd and J. T. Flitcroft Motor Garage until 1929. The business was acquired by Wilson Brothers in 1936.
In addition to his coach building business, William Flitcroft owned a 50-acre farm (Lots 320 and 311) at Rosenthal which he called ‘Halliwell’ after his ancestral village in Lancashire which is now a residential area of Bolton, Greater Manchester. South of Locke and Cleary Streets, it was near the present-day Flitcroft Street and the Warwick TAFE.
The collection of the Warwick and District Historical Society includes a Flitcroft sulky which was handsomely dressed and displayed at Pringle Cottage for the 2021 Jumpers & Jazz Festival. The harness on the horse is over 110 years old.
The information for this story comes principally from Pamela Fisher whose great-grandfather, Jim Rigby, worked as a coach builder at the Pioneer Coach Works in the 1910s.