For most of the 20th century, the name Dennis was associated with Fire engines, dust carts and buses. Dennis vehicles based on the Woodbridge Road to the north of Guildford was the towns largest employer and responsible for the creation of an entire residential area known as Dennisville.
It was founded by two brothers John Cawsey Dennis (1871–1939) and (Herbert) Raymond Dennis (1878–1939) who moved to Guildford from Dorset. Initially they made Speed King bicycles capitalising on the popularity for cycling through the Surrey Hills in the late nineteenth century. They built the bicycles and sold them from their shop, The Universal Athletic Stores, in High Street, Guildford. They made their first motor vehicle in 1898, and in 1899, their first car, The Dennis Light Doctor’s Car. Though shown at the National Cycle Show this car was never put into production.
Dennis Brothers was founded in 1895 by brothers John Cawsey Dennis (1871–1939) and (Herbert) Raymond Dennis (1878–1939) who made Speed King bicycles.[1] They built the bicycles, initially from bought-in parts, and sold them from their shop, The Universal Athletic Stores, in High Street, Guildford. They made their first motor vehicle in 1898, and in 1899, their first car, The Dennis Light Doctor’s Car. Car production began around 1901. John Dennis built a 30,000 square foot three storey plus basement building in Onslow Street in the centre of Guildford with a lift between floors later known as the Rodboro Buildings. This was the first purpose-built motor vehicle factory in Britain
Until well into the early years of the twentieth century the back wheels of most vehicles were driven by a chain from each side of a differential fixed to the chassis frame. Dennis Brothers developed and patented a reliable worm drive into a differential mounted on the back axle. Another feature of that period was spring drive, a torsional shock absorber mounted at the input end of the drive line.