Image ID: 05022

Two Forecars near to Kelham Hall, Newark, c 1903

Kelham Hall
Kelham
England

The front forecar is probably a Bentinck (Bentinck Motor Company, London Road, Nottingham.) Neither vehicle is registered so the photograph must have been taken before Nov 1903. Further research has revealed that the Newark Advertise wrote the following comment about such vehicles:-'On Sunday last (January 9 1897) the first motor car passed through Newark. There were three wheels to the machine one on either side of the front seat which like the back one was in the shape of a chair. The power was procured by means of benzolene and the apparatus greatly similar to a gas engine was fixed under the back seat extending to the front. It was ridden by Messrs Ball and E. H. Grime who are touring this part of the country. Those who saw it were not greatly struck by its appearance although the invention is certainly in the line of progress.' It must be noted that the vehicles described might not necessarily be the ones picture here. The photographer of these was William Percy Lowe Harrison. Mr Harrison became one of Newark's first motor enthusiasts and having been bitten by the automobile bug began to devote much of his spare time to developing this interest. By 1903-4 he had expanded his electrical engineering business on Cartergate into one of Newark's first motor garages becoming an agent for the Glasgow-based Argyll Motor Co Ltd. He also sold bicycles, forecars and continental models of motor car. He was also a keen amateur photographer and during the early 1900s took many fascinating photographs of the vehicles which he sold through his garage. In 1900 the Automobile Club of Great Britain organised a mammoth 1000 mile endurance trial passing through all the major towns in the country. For the Lincoln-Newark leg of the journey the Newark Advertiser invited William Percy Lowe Harrison to ride with one of the contestants and make a special report for the paper. Joining the cars as they waited to set off from Lincoln Mr Harrison chose to ride in a 6hp Parisian Daimler Carriage commenting that once underway the car's tendency to rattle and vibrate completely disappeared being replaced by a most pleasing 'pulsating rapture'. He continued: 'At last with a warning note from our alarm we glided out of Lincoln and quickly passing villas and suburban residences were soon out into open country. 'At every lane end and hamlet were clusters of country folk. It was but a passing glimpse they got of us for we scudded past them swift as the arrow to its mark. 'There is an exhilaration about motoring which one has to experience to understand. 'The thrill of the switchback is there and the pleasurable excitement of flying through the air acts like a tonic.' Arriving at Newark the cars proceeded along Northgate Castlegate Lombard Street and Victoria Street heading for the Spring House where afternoon tea was to be taken. Harrison would have been at the cutting edge of the technology of his time, and his photographs of his shops and vehicles give us a rare insight into Edwardian innovations in transport and the application of science to everyday life. To see more of his pictures, use the 'further search' option on the search page, then look on the drop-down list of 'photographers' under 'Harrison, W P L'. This picture also shows Kelham Hall in the background, which was rebuilt following a fire in 1857 on the site of an earlier Palladian house of c 1730. It was rebuilt by George Gilbert Scott for John Manners-Sutton, MP for Newark. The road runs alongside the River Trent, which can be seen in front of Kelham Hall.

Date: 1903

Organisation Reference: NCCE000695

Organisation: