Our History
The Early Years
J.E Marsland Limited originally first traded as Peak Motors in 1972 specialising in Series Land Rover repairs and chassis welding.
“We soon became aware of the difficulties of purchasing parts and chassis’ so decided to begin building them ourselves. We purchased a new workshop and set it up for chassis manufacture, since then we have never looked back!!”
“Genuine parts got in contact to request that we begin building the OEM 88” chassis for them, we were assigned a buyer who located the original assembly jigs and old tooling that needed restoration. Genuine parts appointed us with the original suppliers of the sub-components and from that moment on we began the manufacture of the OEM chassis for Land Rover. Marsland produced a number of the small components on our newly acquired punch press for genuine parts, with the agreement we could sell our own OEM Series chassis – with that the Marsland Series chassis was released.”
John & Sharon Marsland
The Middle Bit
“As time evolved, we realised that many of our customers also wanted the Defender chassis. Wanting to manufacture the main chassis rails as original and not four plates welded together, but with tooling so expensive we approached Land Rover for their help. An agreement was formed that J.E Marsland would purchase the bare metal chassis rails from the OEM production at GKN. We began to manufacture the Marsland Defender chassis using the chassis main rails from GKN and smaller components produced in-house all to the original equipment drawings.”
“Next came the galvanized version, this took time to perfect and was a costly process, however with the vent holes perfectly correct we began to offer the Marsland galvanised Defender chassis.”
“The relationship with GKN continued to grow eventually having our Defender chassis built on the genuine manufacturing line and as they say the rest is history!”
John & Sharon Marsland
The Here And Now
During early 2018 John & Sharon Marsland decided the time had come to take semi-retirement. Wanting the brand to continue and grow, with the demand as strong as ever for both the desired Marsland Defender and Series chassis, the opportunity following an established trading with KDL for the 2 companies to work in partnership began.
The years that followed have seen the brand continue to expand, restoration of the original tooling and jigs for the Series chassis were undertaken bringing history back to life -just to think these were the very tooling that would have been used when the same vehicles were first built all those years ago in the factory.
The strong relationship with Autostructures UK limited (formally GKN Autostructures Ltd) progressing to enable our full Marsland Defender chassis product line to be manufactured at Autostructures on the genuine production line in its entirety, this means all Marsland Defender Chassis carry a unique insurance approved certificate of authenticity.
Using the original design to still carry full certification the Marsland Defender Adapter chassis was released as the ideal base for engine and EV conversions, the undertaking of projects with worldwide brands to develop additional products such as the Marsland LS3 and LT1 adaptor Kit, created to make the ever-growing appeal for engine conversions as easy as possible.
The Marsland brand is undisputedly proven and time-served, we are proud to have been part of the long history from the early Series production to the final Defender manufacturing in 2016, being recognised as a leading supplier in the revival and restoration process for such iconic vehicles.
