Bourne Plastics of Netherfield & Langar

ABOVE: Announcing Bourne Plastics new contract to supply bodies for the Lotus Elan

Nottingham Evening Post 9th October 1962

ABOVE: A Lotus Elan bodied by Bourne's of Netherfield, Nottingham

BELOW: The body plate on this car reads "Moulded by S. Bourne & Co., (Plastics) Ltd, Nottingham, England"

Original manufacturers of bodies for the famous Lotus Elan sports cars

Bourne Plastics Ltd. was based at Netherfield and, later, Langar, and in the 1960s became the original manufacturer of glassfibre reinforced plastic (GRP) for the top-end sports car, the Lotus Elan 1500.

The company of S. Bourne & Co. was based at the Britannia Works on Victoria Street (built 1902) in Netherfield, east of Nottingham.  They began as cotton spinners, but with falling demand in that market, had changed their focus to experimenting in the relatively new field of industrial plastics.

In 1957 S. Bourne & Co. (Plastics) Ltd. was founded as a subsidiary company with new plant being installed for the processing of acrylic fibres and the moulding of glassfibre reinforced plastics for a wide range of industries.

They became particularly noted in the manufacture of boat hulls, an early success being with the Bourne 35 cruiser and GP14 class racing dinghy.

In 1962 Bourne Plastics won a £100,000 contract to supply GRP bodies for the new Lotus Elan 1500 sports car.

This was seen as a breakthrough for the company and, remarked the Nottingham Evening Post,  “represent[ed] the city’s re-entry into the car industry”.

Special tools and moulding equipment were installed at the Netherfield factory to achieve the five part body-forming process.

Bournes went on to make the first 250-300 bodies before production was transferred in-house to Lotus cars in 1964.

The’Tici' or Tichy

In 1967 Bourne Plastics Ltd moved to new premises on the Lenton Lane industrial estate in Nottingham and continued to expand their output of boat hulls.

At their height they produced no fewer than 16 G.R.P. dinghy hulls as well as making hulls for Richmond Marine’s highly successful skipper dinghies of which 800 were made and sold in the first year.

In 1971, having outgrown the Lenton lane premises, they moved again to the village of Langar to the south east of Nottingham where a new 30,000sq ft. factory was created from a hangar on the former Langar airfield.

Here, boat hull manufacture was further expanded to a point where, at their production height, they were making 3,000 units a year.

In the early 1970s Bournes once again entered to the car body-building world again with a new type of low-consumption, congestion-beating city car named the ‘Tici’.

In 1973, with the world oil crisis fresh in everyone’s mind, the Tichy was promoted as a city runabout, ideal for commuting, or even for use as a golf buggy!  The Tici was specially designed for simple assembly by the kit-car market, being built from standard components.  It employed the engine and running gear of a British Leyland Mini, although at just 89inches long, it was shorter than a standard 1970s Mini;  At the time, the 'Tici' was claimed at the time to be the smallest car in the world.

In design, the Tici was essentially an open two-seater (with roll bar) and detachable GRP hard top.

One notable feature was that the engine was mounted ahead of the rear wheels, making it in effect a mid-engined vehicle.

In January 1973 the Tici made its debut at the International Racing Car Show at Olympia in London, with a price tag of £395

Bourne Plastics of Langar ceased trading in November 1977 with the loss of 100 jobs.

The above text has been compiled from newspaper articles as follows:-

Nottingham Guardian Journal 1st May 1959

Nottingham Evening Post 8th March 1962

Nottingham Evening Post 9th October 1962

Nottingham Guardian Journal 21st April 1970

Nottingham Guardian Journal 7th June 1971

Nottingham Guardian Journal 26th July 1971

Nottingham Evening Post 3rd January 1973

Nottingham Evening Post 22nd November 1977