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Hesketh Motorcycles was founded in 1980 by Alexander, 3rd Lord Hesketh. It was initially located in Daventry and Easton Neston in Northamptonshire, England. Lord Hesketh was interested in reviving the British motorcycle industry using the experience he had gained in F1 racing.

The English motorcycle company built its first prototype on the same year the company was founded. The prototype was powered by a Weslake V Twin 1000cc engine; the first British motorcycle that featured an engine that contained four valves per cylinder as well as twin camshafts. It was expected to be the first major success of the company, but it did not quite work out that way. The motorcycles turned out to be too heavy and capricious and the company encountered a variety of issues during the manufacturing process.

Hesketh then began building the 139 models and reached out to Triumph motorcycles to help develop and improve the product. Triumph, also a British motorcycle manufacturing company, bought the rights of the motorcycle looking to develop a new model beyond its Triumph Bonneville which had been around too long. A new V1000 motorbike was born under the Triumph brand. Unfortunately, Triumph did not have the financial might to purchase and develop the machine.

Lord Hesketh decided to establish a new company in 1983 which he called Hesleydon Ltd. He intended to build a new V1000 model that featured a full fairing and he was to call it the Vampire. The company did its best to turn this machine into a huge success but it came with too many errors. Hence, only 40 units were produced until 1984.

This time around, help came from Mick broom of Broom Engineering, a company that was located at Turweston Aerodrome.  The Broom Engineering eventually acquired Hesleydon with the intention of shipping motorcycles to other countries. He began by improving the V1000 which he turned into a long-distance tourer. 112 units of the Vampire are produced annually in addition to other motorcycle models such as Vulcan and Vortan.

In 2006, there was a burglary incident that resulted in the loss of documents worth £40,000 as well as tools and motorcycles. This resulted in a huge setback for the company’s progress in small scale production at Turweston Aerodrome.