About Swain & Jones

Based in the centre of the market town of Farnham in Surrey, Swain & Jones is one of the oldest remaining family run car dealerships in the country. Today, Swain & Jones represent the Jaguar franchise with the same commitment and high levels of customer service as it has maintained throughout the last century. Offering comprehensive sales, service, parts and body shop facilities, Swain & Jones caters for every customer’s needs. From its multi-award winning sales team, to its highly skilled and experienced team of service technicians, Swain & Jones delivers an industry leading level of customer care that is second to none. Swain & Jones celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2008 and that is an incredible achievement - something that can only be gained by having great insight into customer’s needs, whilst maintaining integrity and loyalty.         

The first 100 years, a brief history lesson....  

 In 1908, Frank Swain and John Lewis-Jones joined forces to establish a business as 'motor agents' at East Street, Farnham. At 25 'Jack' Lewis-Jones already had gained vast experience of the motor industry both in the UK and France. In the early years of his career he joined the prestigious Napier and Sons in Acton, West London eventually becoming one of their senior testers. It was here he first met Frank Swain. After four years with Napier, Lewis-Jones then went on to join Darracq at their factory in Suresnes, just outside Paris. He subsequently returned to Britain to become foreman at the Talbot factory in London's Ladbroke Grove.  There, he again met up with Frank Swain, who had spent much of the intervening years in Italy at the Genoa works, where the San Giorgio - a localised version of the Napier - was being produced.  

It was during their time at the Talbot factory they decided to establish Swain & Jones – to be sited on the south side of Farnham's East Street. However, such was there success, space became an increasing problem and they soon outgrew their premises. In 1912/13 four adjoining cottages were demolished to make way for new workshops. Additional premises of coach builder William Keen were then acquired. The wooden shop dated back to 1826, with its high close-boarded and tile-hung roof, and remained part of the company's showroom complex until 1976.  It is worth mentioning that William Keen previously worked for a nearby wheelwright named George Sturt, who had been established in Farnham since 1810. At the time of Swain & Jones' arrival in 1908, George Sturt’s Grandson, also named George, was still in business at the opposite side of East Street, from where he traded as Sturt & Goatcher, also building bodies for 'horseless carriages'.  The company’s original activity was destined to be immortalised in George Sturt's famous book, The Wheelwright's Shop, published in 1923, in which he sensitively described what, even then, was a dying craft: “If Sturt's business was in its twilight years, that of Messrs Swain & Jones was in the ascendancy.”12th August 1914, eight days after the start of the First World War, Frank Swain and the wheelwright shop's Harry Goatcher teamed up. With Swain recruited into the Royal Flying Corps. Lewis-Jones continued to run the Farnham business, which was soon producing aero-engine components for the war effort. After hostilities, and following a brief spell in the newly-formed RAF, Swain returned to East Street in 1919 and remained with the business until his retirement in 1937. Lewis-Jones remained sole proprietor until he was joined by his son, Donald.

In 1919, the first full year of peace, Swain & Jones was appointed an Austin agent, later becoming a main dealer, forging an association with the company's Longbridge works that endures to this day. This proved to be a fruitful alliance for, by the end of the l920s, Austin - thanks mostly to the success of its famous Seven - was only outsold by Morris, the market leader. But burgeoning sales and repair work at East Street meant that space was once again a problem and, in 1927, the company acquired property on the north side of the road, where a new paint shop, workshops and filling station were established. In 1920 George Sturt sold the wheelwrights’ business to his manager, William Arnold. George and his business partner from 1923 not only sold cars from there but also continued with the coach building business – where they built bodies for the Aldershot and District bus company. In 1931, a Yorkshire-man named Leslie Hawthorn opened a motor business, situated further down East Street. This was to emerge as The Tourist Trophy Garage in 1958, when Leslie’s son Mike - the aptly named Farnham Flyer- became Britain's first world motor-racing champion before being tragically killed in an accident on the A3 between Farnham & Guildford in 1959, whilst driving a Jaguar MKII, registration VDU881, a replica of which was recently pictured at Swain & Jones during the 50th anniversary memorial event, attended by Stirling Moss and Damon Hill.

After the Second World War, changes began to affect the motor industry. In 1952 one-time rivals Austin and Morris merged to form the British Motor Corporation. As Swain & Jones' business boomed, in 1955 the company acquired more land to build larger workshops behind its showrooms and, as an Austin Main Parts Stockist, these also included a large spares store.

The company's involvement with MG dates from 1957, the year before the business celebrated its 50th anniversary and the make arrived with BMC's Morris, Wolseley and Riley agencies. A new showroom, able to accommodate 36 cars, was opened that year when the MGA was Abingdon's current sports car. But changes were taking place within the motor industry, with BMC giving way in 1968 to British Leyland and with it the turmoil that it carried in its wake. More positively, in 1969, the company took over the Tourist Trophy Garage's Rover and Triumph franchise and subsequently became Jaguar/Daimler main distributors. In 1976 the East Street showrooms, which still incorporated Williams Keen’s original coach building shop, were destroyed by fire. The demise of these structures, that had grown piecemeal over the years, allowed Swain & Jones to initiate the construction of a new purpose-designed showroom, which opened the following year.

Subsequently, the company redeveloped the north side of East Street. This involved acquiring George Sturt's one-time wheelwright's shop, which had been sold by Arnold and Comben in the late 1930s to brothers Len and Joe Heath, who used it for motorcycle sales for some 40 years, and John West had continued this two-wheeled tradition.  Constructed circa 1795 of local ironstone, it is now a listed building and the old workshop has been imaginatively incorporated into the redeveloped site, with a display in tribute to Sturt. The adjacent Jaguar showrooms were opened in 1989 by its chairman, Sir John Egan. Peter Lewis-Jones, who joined the company in 1968, is Chairman of Swain & Jones and Grandson of the founder. It is his vision and foresight driving the company into their next century.

2008 saw the 100 year anniversary of Swain and Jones and to celebrate this, a special Cunningham XK was manufactured for the dealership.

In August 2009 Graeme Lungley became Managing Director after joining Swain and Jones in 2003 and progressing through the business from Sales Specialist to Sales Manager and Dealer Principal before becoming only the 2^nd Managing Director outside of the family in the company’s history.

Regeneration is key to the survival of many businesses today. Recognising this, Swain & Jones understand the need to adapt from the traditional image of the Jaguar customer to encompass the needs of the new ‘Jag Generation’ and this requires a bold approach. Whilst remaining loyal to their core customers, Swain & Jones introduced the new XK ‘Gorgeous’ to entice the younger motorist, and moved forwards with further new models such as the new XF and all new XJ in 2010.

In May 2010 a decision was made to introduce a Land Rover Aftersales service at Swain and Jones, increasing business for both the service and parts departments. Swain and Jones also had a huge refurbishment in July 2010, creating a new, attractive showroom with clean and modern styling. The new showroom welcomes the unveiling of the all new 12MY XJ, XF and XK in 2011.