Craig Horner - The Emergence of Bicycling and Automobility in Britain

A cycle club out on tour, c. 1880, with a mixture of ordinaries and tricycles. This predates the arrival of the safety bicycle. Illustration by Joseph Pennell, in Viscount Bury and G. Lacy Hillier, Cycling (London: Longmans, Green, & Co, 3rd ed., 1891), opp. p. 194.

The eliminating trials for the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup were held in the grounds of Welbeck Abbey, Notts. The picnicking drivers in the foreground are (left to right) J.W. Stocks, Roger Fuller, Mark Mayhew, Charles Jarrott, S. F. Edge, W. T. Clifford Earp. Image: David Hales.

Punch magazine initially lampooned the motor car as uncontrollable, and the motorist as hapless. This cartoon is by Leonard Raven-Hill: Punch , 23 January 1901, p. 63. Image: Richard Roberts Archive.

S. F. Edge, assisted by (probably) Brooks, repairs a puncture at the roadside on the Napier during the Thousand Mile Trial. They are on the road between Darlington and Northallerton, it is 7 May 1900, and St John Nixon and (probably) Mary Kennard look on. Image: National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.

S. F. Edge imported De Dion motor-tricyles and cars. Here he is on a 1901 tricycle with an air-cooled 2hp engine. This model is unusual in that it is not water-cooled and it has no gearbox. Edge has evidently specified equipment here for long-distance travel, such as a good-quality front lamp, horn, large-capacity fuel tank, and tool roll. The same photograph appears in Selwyn Francis Edge, My motoring reminiscences (London: G.T. Foulis, 1934), opp. p. 48, in which Edge incorrectly captions it as a 6hp racing machine. Image: Malcolm Jeal, with identification and correction thanks to Michael Edwards.

The Thousand Mile Trial of 1900 stopped off in Manchester, permitting respectable-looking members of the public to inspect the vehicles. The photograph was taken by Argent Archer. Image: Malcolm Jeal.

At selected towns en route, the vehicles of the Thousand Mile Trial were put on display to a paying public. Here, the vehicles are on display in the Royal Botanical Gardens at Old Trafford in Manchester, 1900. The photograph was taken by Argent Archer. Image: Malcolm Jeal.

Charles Jarrott and S. F. Edge pose on the 6hp Panhard-Levassor (known as Number 8) which had won the 1896 Paris-Marseilles race. Harry Lawson bought and imported the car before selling it on to Edge, who instructed Montague Napier to make several improvements, including here, a steering wheel replacing the tiller. Image: Peter Card.

S. F. Edge remained a cyclist all his life and was happy to endorse products, here an Ariel, 1909. From G. H. Smith, Selwyn Francis Edge: The man and some of the things he has done (privately pub., 1928), p. 12.

Harry Lawson played a key part in promoting the early motor industry, and was behind the London to Brighton Run of 1896. Here is his Gyroscope of c . 1902, with his daughters demonstrating its apparent ease of use. With the horse directly replaced by a steered, motorized wheel, commentators wondered at the time if this approach was the direction motor traction would take. From H. O. Duncan, The world on wheels, vol. 2