THE GRIFFIN'S TALE

The dictionary defines a griffin – from the 14th-century Old French, ‘grifon’ – as a mythical winged beast with an eagle-like head and the body of a lion. But how this Griffin came to symbolise Vauxhall takes us back to the 12th century, and the days of the Plantagenets.

In an age when strong branding could save your skin, Fulk Le Bréant, an English knight, sported the griffin as his heraldic device. Fulk lived a colourful life as a soldier of fortune for King John – famous for the Magna Carta, but deeply unpopular in medieval England.

Fulk was made Sheriff of Oxford and Hertford, and was granted the Manor of Luton. He also married Lady Margaret de Redvers, a member of the rich and powerful Fitzgerald family. The marriage brought Fulk another large house and estate on what was then the outskirts of London, at Lambeth. And that house became known as Fulk’s Hall.

Leap to 1857, when Scottish engineer Alexander Wilson set up an ironworks nearby, making everything from refrigeration equipment to steam engines for pleasure boats – and even boats for the Royal Navy. In 1903 it built the first Vauxhall car. When it needed a badge, what could be better than the Griffin? And in 1907, Vauxhall the car maker moved north – to Fulk’s old estate, the Manor of Luton. The Griffin went with them and the rest, as they say, is history.

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