The Woodbridge site was sold and a new small factory built in Slyfield remains in use by lineal business descendant, bus-maker Alexander Dennis.

[1] They built the bicycles, initially from bought-in parts, and sold them from their shop, The Universal Athletic Stores, in High Street, Guildford.

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.

In 1913 Dennis Brothers moved their main operations to a new much larger building of almost four acres on the twelve-acre site at Woodbridge leaving their purpose-built Onslow Street premises solely for repairs.

[8][9] Rising international tensions precipitated a major contract for supply of 1,000 3-ton "subsidy" lorries to private buyers on terms set by the War Office.

[citation needed] After August 1914's outbreak of hostilities production was reduced to the subvention type 3-ton military lorries, now supplied directly to the War Office, and the Dennis turbine fire engine.

A takeover had been under consideration before the war but it was not until April 1919 that it was made public Dennis Brothers and White and Poppe had agreed to an exchange of shares in each other's business.

Alfred White and Peter Poppe joined the Dennis Brothers board[13] but it was not until March 1933 in the midst of the 1930s depression that engine production was transferred from Coventry to Guildford.

In the 1920s Dennis began to design and build separate chassis for their public service vehicles (buses) with a lower ride height.

[6] Over that period Dennis built some 3,000 6/8 ton capacity Max and 1,500 Pax 3-ton lorries, assembled 700 Churchill tanks, 17,000 engines for landing craft, 7,000 fire pumps, 750,000 bombs and 3,000 infantry carriers.

1950 introductions were a passenger chassis named Dominant with a semi-automatic transmission and a horizontally mounted diesel engine and Paxit all-enclosed mechanical rear-loading refuse-collection vehicles.

[5][25] Potential passenger customers preferred their new vehicles front-entrance and rear-engined and Dennis had no bus in production to meet those requirements.

[6] In late 1965 a significant block of shareholders dissatisfied with the performance of their business asked that Dennis Brothers cease production and liquidate its assets.

[27] New capital was found[28] for an expansion and modernisation programme and twelve months later the new chairman reported activities had been split into six clear-cut divisions and claimed they were "poised for recovery".

[6][40] In September Hestair sold Dennis' Mercury towing tractors and motor mowers to Marshalls (Halifax)[5][41] and new plant was bought for the Guildford factory.

A single specialist fire engine chassis on which modular body units could be mounted it was complementary to the existing range.

[48] In February 1980 John Smith, the managing director of Hestair Dennis, was jailed for life in Baghdad for paying "huge amounts for commercial deals and secret information".

At the October 1986 Commercial Motor Show Dennis introduced its Javelin design using a 6-cylinder Cummins engine mounted forward of the axle.

[65] Dennis and Duple had developed the Dart, a midibus bought by London Transport as a one-man operated bus to replace their AEC Routemasters.

Shelvoke's design rights were bought from the receiver in September 1991 and their parts and service depots at Merthyr Tydfil and Birmingham were taken over.

Dennis held 40 per cent of the British fire engine market, the Dart mid-sized bus was Britain's biggest seller.

[73] In December 1995, Trinity purchased the aircraft and cargo handling division of ML Holdings: Douglas Equipment and Schopf.

[76] Mayflower, an engineering group that owned bus bodybuilder Walter Alexander, felt threatened by the almost-completed Henlys-Dennis tie up and launched a bid for Dennis.

[78][79] Mayflower revealed a proposed alliance with Daimler-Benz including collaboration on development of chassis, technical support, power unit supply and worldwide distribution.

[33] In March 2004, Mayflower was placed in administration amid accusations of four years of falsifying crucial company records as to customers' payments to HSBC, counting the same income twice.

[86] Eventually TransBus Plaxton was sold to its managers, Brian Davidson and Mike Keane with the support of a private equity group.

[91] The Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services owns a pumper that was built by Dennis Brothers and delivered to the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore in 1925 from England.

Dennis were noted as specialist makers of refuse collection trucks, with compactors, bin lifters, tipper-body emptying and other specialised features for this market.

Conceived to meet a requirement for a simple easily produced and maintained alternative to the effective but costly and complicated Quad 4 x 4 tractor, the Dennis design steered on the first pair of wheels but dispensed with springs, substituting six oversized tyres for conventional suspension.

A centre-control driving position in a shallow lightly armoured body provided with ammunition lockers and sheltered under an overall canvas tilt resulted in a vehicle not instantly recognisable as truck.