Shared Hendy Memories

Pam Henwood (nee King) had little choice but to leave her job at Hendy Lennox in Southsea during 1961 – she married an air force pilot and had to move away. Otherwise she probably would have stayed forever.

Like the rest of the nation in 1971, Hendy Lennox (as it was then) was faced with huge changes introduced by the Metric Currency Board. Vivienne Collett (nee Fell) worked at the company’s Southsea branch during the time of these historic changes and still has vivid memories about the events.

Michael Simpson joined Hendy Lennox in Southsea as an apprentice mechanic in the late 1950s, at the tender age of 17. As an enthusiastic teenager, he was quickly accepted by his colleagues and sent with his mentor to Gordon Motors (named after Gordon Hendy) at Cosham.

Owning a motorcar during the early twentieth century was no more than a dream for many. But, in 1910, Percy Hendy and Henry Ford reached an agreement that would see the creation of the nation’s first Ford dealership. Motoring in Britain was on the up.

When a young John Raffle first came into close contact with the Hendy name in 1954, he was hoping to become an apprentice engineer at the company’s Chandlers Ford agricultural branch.