THE BRITISH MOTOR INDUSTRY, 1896-1939 Also by Kenneth Richardson TWENTIETH-CENTURY COVENTRY THE BRITISH MOTOR INDUSTRY 1896-1939 by KENNETH RICHARDSON Lanchester Polytechnic, Coventry assisted by C. N. O'Gallagher IC Kenneth Richardson 1977 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1977 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1977 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos Melbourne New rork Singapore Tokyo British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Richardson, Kenneth, b.1912 The British motor industry, 1896-1939 1. Automobile industry and trade - Great Britain - History I. Title II. o 'Gallagher, C N 338.4'7'62922220941 HD9710.G72 ISBN 978-1-349-03390-4 ISBN 978-1-349-03388-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03388-1 This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book Agreement To my wzfe Margaret Joan, who has sustained me, this book is dedicated Vll Contents List of Illustrations IX Preface XI THE FIRST SELF-PROPELLED VEHICLES Early Pioneers; Turnpikes and the Coming of Steam; Steam and the Challenge of the Internal Combustion Engine; The French Trials and Technical Progress; Pioneers and Restriction in Britain; The British Motor Syndicate; The Founding ofthe R.A.C. 2 QUALITY CARS AND SPECIALIST BODY MAKERS Daimler; Training the Automobile Engineer; Lanchester, Napier, Maudslay and Royce; Carriage Folk and Carriage Makers; Workers in Wood; Body-making in the 1920s; The Roots of British Motor Manufacturers. 27 3 THE AMERICAN CHALLENGE AND BRITISH RESPONSE The Meaning of Henry Ford; Americans in Britain; The Cyclecar; Morris and Austin; Effects of the War; Post-war Depression; The Austin Seven. 61 4 THE POPULAR CAR AND VOLUME PRODUCTION The Significant Role of the Components Manufacturer; After the War, 1919-22; Management Methods in Engineering; The New Motoring, 1925-39; Clyno and Singer; Austin, Engelbach and Longbridge; Volume Production at its Zenith. 90 5 MOTOR RACING AND THE WORLD LAND SPEED RECORD The Early Days; Brooklands, Sunbeam and Coatalen; Post-war Brooklands, and the Grand Prix; The Record Breakers. 119 Vlll CONTENTS 6 MOTOR SPORT AND THE SPORTS CAR The Role of the R.A.C.; The Tourist Trophy and Donington Park; Bentley and Le Mans; Aston Martin; The Coventry Contribution, Riley and Others; M.G. 143 7 THE ARRIVAL OF MIDDLE-CLASS MOTORING The New Traffic and its Problems; The Roads; The Road Traffic Act, 1934; Driving Instruction and Tests; Hire Purchase; Car Hire; The Motoring Press. 169 8 PETROL, GARAGES AND THE PATTERN OF DISTRIBUTION The Ancient Lineage of Oil; Petrol, its Discovery and Distribution; The Petrol and Oil Interests, their Competition and Agreement; Garages and Service; The Independent Motor Agent and the Manu- facturers; The Motor Agent - the Manufacturers take Control. 198 Appendix: The Early Coventry Motor Industry - Firms closed down or taken over. 225 A Note on Sources 231 Notes 235 Index 252 List of Illustrations 1. Participants in the lOOO-mile reliability trial, London to Edin­ burgh; Walter R. Randolph in car marked Y, with Harry Hewet- son. 9 2. The new motorist arrives on the social scene, in a Rover 6 h.p., 1905 23 3. Mr C. T. Crowden in a Daimler on the Coventry-Birmingham run, 5 May 1897 28 4. The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, 1910; still in regular use in 1963, having covered 350,000 miles 41 5. Early quality bodywork by Thomas Hobley, Coventry Motor Bodies 43 6. H. H. the Sultan of Johore in his 24/6 Sunbeam, early 19208 49 7. Fancy driving with a Benz at the Royal Agricultural Hall; organis­ ed by Harry Hewetson; Walter R. Randolph standing in foreground 53 8. The Ivel tractor with its inventor, Dan Albone, (standing) and his son Sidney driving 59 9. The Model 'T' Ford, as advertised by Billinghams ofWolverhamp- ton, 1914 68 10. A cyclecar; the Crouch Carette 70 11. 'Mr. Quiverful and his Cowley', c. 1920 74 12. Sir Herbert Austin's daughters and the Austin 'Seven' 84 13. Sir Herbert Austin with the first team of racing Sevens, 1923 89 14. Testing the first Hillman Minx in Europe, 1931; Sir William Rootes (right) with George Vallet 109 15. Sir Francis Samuelson at the wheel of his 6 h.p. Rover, the first car to climb Rosedale Chimney, N. Riding, 1909 120 16. View from Brooklands Members' Bar - by Gordon Crosby 123 17. The Sunbeam Mabley, 1901 128 18. Sir Henry Segrave at the wheel of his record-breaking 'Tiger', 1925, with Capt. J. S. Irving, the designer, and Henry Wilding, chief of the experimental and test section at Sunbeam, Southport 135 x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 19. A masterpiece by Parry Thomas; the Leyland Straight Eight 139 20. A motor cycle meeting near Coventry in the early 20s. Note the motor scooters 145 21. Walter Brandish negotiating a bad patch in the Sutton Coldfield and N. Birmingham Motor Club trial, in the late 20s; note the specially made sidecar on the wrong side to protect his injured leg 146 22. Two great names of quality; the Bentley Corniche, produced by Rolls-Royce in 1938 158 23. The M.G. in production (testing) ~ by Gordon Crosby 165 24. Miss Cunliffe in her racing Sunbeam 167 25. A driving licence of 1921, unchanged since 1903 177 26. Lord Northcliffe (formerly Alfred Harmsworth) in his Mercedes with William 1. Iliffe as passenger c. 1906 191 27. The White House crash, Le Mans, 1927 - Gordon Crosby 197 28. Petrol deliveries, old style; Carless, Capel and Leonard 203 29. Distribution, old style; Brandish and Sons' Garage, Coventry, c. 1930 222 The author and publishers wish to. acknowledge the kindness of the following in allowing us to use their photographs: The Editor, Old Motor MagtU;.ine (1) Mr Walter R. Randolph of Hailsham (7) Mr Dan Albone of Spridlington, Lincoln. nephew of the inventor (8) Mr Ken Fidgen and the S. T.D. Register (6 and 17) Mrs Mary Dalton of Coventry, niece of Thomas Hobley (5) Rover Cars of Solihull (2) james Young of Bromley, Kent (4) Mr Allmark of Billinghams, Wolverhampton,. (9) Mr Robert Crouch of Leamington Spa (10) Mr G. N. Georgano and the National Motor Museum (11) Mr Richard Westcott and Leyland Historic Vehicles Ltd Longbridge, Bir- mingham (12 and 19) The editor, Coventry Evening Telegraph (13, 14) Sir Francis Samuelson of Horsham (15) Mr D. H. Wilding of Leamington Spa, son of Henry Wilding, (18 and 24) Mr Maurice Smith, managing editor, and Autocar (16, 20, 23, 26 and 27) Mr Dennis Brandish of Coventry (21 and 29) Mr john T. Leonard of Carless, Capel and Le()nard (2S) Mr Andrew White and jaguar Cars, of Coventry (3) The visual aids staff of the Lanchester Polytechnic have been infinitely help­ ful in the reproducing of the illustrations. Preface This book is intended to be about the people who have made the British motor industry; pioneer motorists and engineers, manufacturers large and small, craftsmen and shop-floor workers, motoring journalists, dealers and racing drivers. As far as possible, the spotlight has been turned upon the firms which some of them created, and upon the social changes which this relatively new and vigorous industry has helped to bring about. We have not attempted to disguise the fact that it has had to learn, in due course and in its own way, from the United States. Of the cars themselves, which have in­ evitably formed an important part of our subject matter, we have avoided writing a detailed technical description. To do otherwise would have been the height of presumption, owing to the number and high quality of motoring journalists writing today, from whom we have received much co-operation, and upon whose chosen ground we certainly do not wish to trespass. Having stated our aim, it is perhaps necessary to add that we are only too well aware that we have fallen far short of it. Many readers will no doubt find that men, firms and cars in which they happen to be interested have been given what they feel to be inadequate emphasis or perhaps even omitted altogether. The pressures of time and space, and the fact that some materials have been preserved while others have not, must account for our selection, which we hope is no more capricious than that of history itself. The age-long search for the self-propelled vehicle, to which we refer briefly in our first chapter, was carried out by many talented men whose names ought to be remembered but have in fact been almost completely forgotten. We need not perhaps take things as far back as the eighteenth book of the Iliad, in which Homer tells how Hephaestus, the smith of the gods, was work­ ing on tripods with golden wheels, 'that of their own motion they might enter the assembly of the gods and again return unto his house, a marvel to look upon'. This self-propelling food trolley is referred to only in passing by the XII PREFACE American automobile pioneer Charles E. Duryea, descending like a very senior god from Olympus to join in a controversy on the origin of the motor-car, but his article does name a surprising number of nineteenth­ century British and American inventors who made contributions towards the liquid fuel engine and who have now been almost forgotten. This is the pattern of life, and we have inevitably found ourselves conforming to it. II The work upon which this book has been based could not possibly have been undertaken without the generous financial assistance and encouragement given by the Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry.