1869 – 2023
When an engine does breakdown, Dorman Diesels is committed to ensuring an engine is operational with minimum delay, achieving the urgent despatch of replacement parts by the fastest means possible.
Go to solutionsOngoing reliability ensured
Our warehouse facility in Lincoln stocks thousands of line items and holds over half a million individual components.
Our workshop facilities are available to enable us to undertake a full overhaul of customers’ engines and major components. This support is extended worldwide through our contract maintenance and servicing schemes.
All service work is carried out to the same high standards by factory trained engineers who have an extensive knowledge of our products, gained both through specialist training and practical experience. Our engineers are specially trained in diagnostic techniques and to undertake preventative maintenance.
Frequently Asked QuestionsThe History of Dorman Diesels
Founded by William Henry Dorman in 1869 on Foregate Street, Stafford, W.H.Dorman began by manufacturing cutting tools for the footwear industry, but soon began to produce more specialised machinery such as printing, sewing and grinding machines.
A selection of historic Dorman literature taken from Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History. Copyright © Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History.
Design department at Dorman Diesels factory on Tixall Road, Stafford, photo taken around 1985. Copyright © Staffordshire Museum Service and the Staffordshire Past Track website: www.staffspasttrack.org.uk
In 1903 W.H.Dorman produced its first internal combustion engine for the emerging motor car industry; this became the main activity of the company.
During the First World War the company was made a Controlled Establishment under the Conditions of War Act and made a notable contribution to the war effort, especially in the development of aerial warfare.
In 1929 Dorman began to move part of the plant to a new 20-acre site on Tixall Road, Stafford. By 1939 the manufacture of engines for road use had ceased and the company began to concentrate on the production of industrial and marine engines.
In 1939 the Ministry of Labour requisitioned the Foregate works for use as a training centre for engineers. The remainder of the plant transferred from Foregate Street to Tixall Road and concentrated on the production of industrial and marine engines.
In 1959 W.H.Dorman bought the old established Stafford engineering firm of W.H.Bagnall’s Ltd.
W.H.Dorman was taken over by the English Electric Company in 1961 and by 1979 Dorman Diesels Ltd. was a subsidiary of GEC producing Dorman Diesel engines at Stafford and at the old Ruston & Hornsby factory in Lincoln.
The Dorman diesel engine business was bought in 1987 by Broadcrown and was later purchased by the Perkins Engines Company of Peterborough in 1993. The last Dorman-branded engine was produced in 1995, however the DNA of the Dorman engines lives on to this day in the form of the Perkins 4000, which is a development of the Dorman SE.
In 1998 Perkins sold the Ruston & Hornsby range to RHL Spares Ltd following the closure of the Dorman Diesels Central Spares Division in Lincoln. Formed by a group of experienced former Dorman employees to support the Ruston & Hornsby and Dorman Diesel engine ranges; RHL purchased the stock and rights to exclusively support the old Ruston & Hornsby range of engines. The RHL Spares business was purchased in 2006.
In September 2010 Perkins Engines agreed to sell all of the Dorman Diesels non-SE related parts business including all of the technical records and intellectual property relating to the ST, DA,Q, J, L, LS, P, Y, Monair, F, and DWD engine ranges.
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Dorman Diesels Limited
Great Northern Terrace
Lincoln
Lincolnshire LN5 8HJ
Solid and reliable
Solid and reliable
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© Copyright 2023 Dorman Diesels Limited, Great Northern Terrace, Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN5 8HJ, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1522 781706.
