themotorhood.com | New Zealand Classic Car 77working on his automobiles. The second Marlborough
would take 14 years to build, even with the help of his
enthusiastic friend Jack Loch, who built most of the
body and did the upholstery. Finally, it was finished,
and, to demonstrate its reliability, Birch drove the car
from Gisborne to Muriwai for a trial run, a distance of
around 1000km.
While working on the two sister cars to the original
Marlborough, Birch had also designed a small car to
compete with the Austin 7. He believed that this car could
be produced in large numbers, with most of the parts
being manufactured locally in Gisborne. Others thought
so too, and the Carlton Car Company was formed. The
second Marlborough was renamed the ‘Carlton’, but it’s
probably best to call it the ‘Marlborough-Carlton’, as the
new, smaller car was known as the ‘baby Carlton’. The
prototype for the baby Carlton was completed in 1928
and driven around Gisborne for potential investors.
Based on the proof offered by both the Marlborough-
Carlton and the prototype baby Carlton, Birch raised
the capital required, and planning was under way to
put the prototype into production when Gisborne
got caught up in the Great Depression in 1930. The
Carlton Car Company was one of the many casualties of
that era. This was followed by a fire in Birch’s workshop
that ruined the body of the Marlborough-Carlton and
destroyed the still-uncompleted sister car. The fire also
destroyed all the patterns and tooling that Birch had made
for the new baby Carlton.
For Birch, it was the end of the road. The undamaged
prototype Carlton was sold. The Marlborough-Carlton
was converted into a truck by Collett Motors and sold
to a farmer. Birch never attempted to build another car.
He lived out his life in Gisborne, gaining the nickname
‘Old Bill’, and died in 1945 aged 78.‘Mrs McCafferty’
Little was known about what happened to the sole
surviving Marlborough-Carlton until registration papers
turned up identifying it as a truck, first registered in- It is now accepted without a doubt that this is the
surviving second car, sold by Collett Motors over a decade
earlier. It was bought by Bob Power, who knew nothing of
its history. When asked about it many years later, Power
said that he remembered it had Rushmere headlights, a
chrome head, and a beautiful instrument panel. At some
stage, he had acquired from Collett Motors the third
sister car to use as parts, many of which ended up at the
Little was known about what
happened to the sole surviving
Marlborough-Carlton until
registration papers turned up
identifying it as a truck, first
registered in 1946Left and above: The Marlborough-Carlton as
recovered from a Hawke’s Bay farm