New acquisition - Coventry Corporation bus destination blind

Coventry Transport Museum recently acquired an intriguing object, which was kindly donated by Mr Crick.

This impressive object is a Coventry Corporation Transport bus destination blind, from 1962.

The item would have been situated on the front of a bus, and features many prominent locations from around Coventry such as Earlsdon, Keresley Road, Baginton Civic Airport and Foleshill. 

The blind is shown here completely unrolled, and measures over 10 metres in length!

Unlike the digital destination displays on buses today, to change the destination display the bus conductor would have to manually turn the blind with a winding handle. We believe that this particular blind was used on the Coundon - Kingsbury Roard - Wood End - City route, since the fabric is slightly discoloured and worn around those particular place names.

What is particularly interesting about Coventry Destination Blinds is the tapered writing - many of the destination names were too long to fit on the blind, so this style of writing was used to allow for the entire place name to fit.

The blind is currently held in our Small Objects Collection store, but it looks likely that it will go on display in the fairly near future, in one of our newly redesigned galleries.

Find out more about our Redevelopment project.

Sweet Seventeen - A Poem by W.H. Maudslay

The Museum archive contains a number of documents relating to the Maudslay Company, which built cars at Parkside from 1902 until about 1926.  Amongst the records is the personal scrapbook of W.H. Maudslay, the founder of the company.

Archive Volunteer Dave Butler has spent many hours examining this scrapbook in detail, and is picking out a variety of items of interest for the Coventry Transport Museum blog.   The poem below appears to have been written by Maudslay himself:

SWEET SEVENTEEN

Have you heard of the beauty that’s just come to town
A Warwickshire lass of undoubted renown
She comes of a stock far famed and well born
The same lovely features being found in her form
They may sing of Godiva, old Coventry’s queen
But you can’t match this beauty of Sweet Seventeen

Her radiant face in a bonnet so round
Rivets your glance as she skims o’er the ground
While her body is moulded with exquisite grace
She can move like a racehorse or go your own pace
And yet she’s so quiet, of such charms you may dream
She’s a regular darling, our Sweet Seventeen

She’s as sound as a bell is our Coventry charmer
So strong, yet so light, no rough roads can harm her
And just through the city she moves with such grace
The whole of the town wants to see her sweet face
But hurry, oh hurry, if business you mean
Or you won’t stand a chance with your Sweet Seventeen

If you find yourself walking down Piccadilly
This lovely creation you may chance to see
Number 60, the house where she pleases to dwell
See her once, and you’re sure to fall under her spell
You simply can’t help it, she is such a queen
Amongst cars, and her power is a Sweet Seventeen.

The Maudslay Seventeen was introduced in 1910 and a technical description of it in the 9th October 1909 issue of The Autocar refers to it as the Maudslay “Sweet Seventeen”.
Number 60 Piccadilly was the address of the company’s London showrooms.  

Maudslay Records in the Coventry Transport Museum archive

Dave Butler, Archive Volunteer.

The Maudslay Motor Company was established in 1901 by Cyril Maudslay, whose ancestors had for many years owned and run the firm of Maudslay, Sons and Field, famous throughout the 19^th century as builders of boilers and engines for ships.  The motor company’s premises were at Parkside, Coventry.  Cars, lorries and buses were produced until the outbreak of the First World War, when the company ceased car production and concentrated on commercial vehicles.  In the early 1950s, production moved to Alcester and the Parkside premises were closed. 

Coventry Transport Museum has two Maudslay cars, a lorry and a bus on display, and some of the company’s records from the Parkside era are held in the museum’s archive.  Archive volunteer Dave Butler has been examining two of these records in detail.

The first volume is an album of cuttings from various newspapers and magazines, covering the period from the mid-1870s to 1931.  We believe that it was kept by Walter Henry Maudslay who was the chairman and managing director of Maudslay, Sons and Field until the company’s demise in 1900, although a few items date from after his death in 1927.  A good number of these are articles about the company and its products – a fast crossing of the Atlantic by Maudslay engined ships, engines for new warships for the Turkish Navy, a small railway locomotive and of course the various cars.

As well as articles about the Maudslay
company, the book includes personal items
including drawings by younger members
of the Maudslay family.

Perhaps more interesting, however, are the numerous articles about the Maudslay family – weddings, births, funerals and obituaries, letters, and children’s poems and drawings.  The articles suggest that prior to the First World War the Maudslays had a comfortable position in society, being reasonably wealthy and moving in what we would describe as an upper middle class circle. 

W H Maudslay leased an estate in Ireland for a number of years, and several cuttings reflect how the political unrest, both local and national, affected this. During the First World War there are several references to family members and acquaintances in receipt of gallantry awards, although fortunately for the family no member seems to have been killed in action. 

The second volume is a similar album of cuttings, but this one appears to have been the Maudslay Motor Company’s official press cuttings file.  The cuttings in this volume concentrate on the company’s products, mainly the cars, but there are also a few articles on the engines which the company built for marine work.  Also included are several accounts of a journey in India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) using a Maudslay car, which must have been quite an adventure in the early 1900s.

We’re hoping to feature some of these articles in future blog entries, so watch this space!

A surprise visit from a descendant of Charles Thomas Crowden

Members of Coventry Transport Museum's team of curatorial and archive staff are often called into the museum to meet visitors who have specific questions about the collection, items they wish to donate, or things that they would like to discuss about Coventry's motoring heritage.  Below, Curator Damien Kimberley describes one of his most recent calls:

A call from front of house staff last week turned out to be a nice suprise - that of meeting a descendant of one of Coventry's motoring pioneers!

 I found Martin Tapsfield standing by our 1898 Crowden motor carriage, and he soon revealed himself as the maker's great grandson! The car, and descendant, related to Charles Thomas Crowden (1859-1922), who arrived in Coventry around 1896 to work for both the Humber Cycle Company, and Great Horseless Carriage Company at the newly opened 'Motor Mills'. Crowden was first works manager at the GHCC, but from 1898 started up alone at Leamington as a motor manufacturer.

Since meeting Martin, he emailed through this lovely sepia print of the Crowden family in a GHCC model - Martin told me that one of the young girls is his grandmother.

The photograph below is one that we already had in the archive - as you can see, Crowden is again the driver, in perhaps the very same vehicle?

 
To find out more about the Great Horseless Carriage Company, the Motor Mills and many more of Coventry's pioneering transport companies, visit the Coventry Transport Museum Wiki.

How a Wolverhampton Music Hall could hold the key to part of Coventry's cycling heritage

Coventry Transport Museum Curator Damien Kimberley is currently working on his third book about the Coventry transport industry - having already published titles on the motorcycle manufacturers of Coventry, and more recently the city's motorcar companies, it is now time for him to tackle the biggest and most complex project of all – the cycle manufacturers. 

Rowley B. Turner on a Michaux-type velocipede

For his latest book, which Damien hopes will be completed and published during 2014, he has taken on the mammoth task of trying to give an account of every cycle manufacturer that has ever existed in Coventry.  Damien has been researching these companies 'on and off' for about eight years, but work on this book has really ramped up over the past few months. 

As Damien describes below, this ambitious project is already leading him down surprising (and often frustrating) avenues of research:

The production of bicycles in Coventry is where it all began; the motor industry developing off the back of it, and eventually, displacing it altogether.

Bicycle manufacture began in the city in late 1868, when Rowley B. Turner brought a Michaux-type velocipede from Paris to the works of the Coventry Sewing Machine Company (CSMC) at King Street. Rowley was the CSMC agent in France, and nephew of Josiah Turner, one of the CSMC managing directors. After much deliberation, he convinced his uncle and fellow directors to accept a large order to manufacture copies of the Michaux machine, to sell back in France. The CSMC then had to change their articles of association, and changed the title of the business to the Coventry Machinists Company (CMC), and the manufacture of bicycles ensued. The CMC have been widely acknowledged as the first company in Britain to mass produce bicycles.

The Coventry Machinists Company

Prior to this, Coventry had been famous for making ribbons and watches, amongst other things, yet these trades had been in steep decline over several years and many citizens were on the poverty line. The production of bicycles was fantastic in terms of creating employment, yet it did not develop as quickly as some may assume.

Many men who were engaged at the CSMC at the time of the introduction of Turner's French velocipede, gained experience and knowledge of this new trade, and left to establish their own cycle manufacturing businesses. However, this was not instantaneous, and many maintained the manufacture of sewing machines also – a product with which they were far more familiar.

James Starley was one of the first to leave the services of the CMC, soon joined by William Hillman, and at St. John’s Street in 1870 they created the ‘Ariel’ bicycle – a machine that drew many improvements on the Michaux model.

Other ‘machinists’ found interest, and steadily, over the next few years, other businesses were founded in Coventry for the purposes of making bicycles. By 1877, there were a reported ‘nine’ companies in the city engaged in bicycle manufacture. By 1884 there were eighteen companies, and at the industry’s peak during the 1890s...well, I haven’t quite made my mind up yet.

Basically the industry boomed, not just in Coventry which was the capital centre of cycle production, but in other towns and cities too. The reason for this explosion was the ‘safety’ cycle, perfected by John Kemp Starley in Coventry with his ‘Rover’ machine – a design which made the bicycle far more accessible. As a result, all existing manufacturers copied the Rover principle, and many new firms were established to do the same. Activity in Coventry was rife, with orders for thousands of machines made weekly.

So, by this point, I’ve yet to confirm just how many cycle manufactures existed in the city, and in terms of how many existed overall from 1868 onwards, you may be surprised to learn that I’ve been narrowing down a list of some 500 or so possibilities.

The research into these manufacturers, and potential manufacturers, has been extremely complex. Many companies were linked by individuals, whereby a partnership was once formed, yet someone may have then left the partnership and was replaced by another, therefore changing the company name.

For example, John Icely Warman, another of the original CMC school, first began a cycle business in 1876 as Warman, Laxon & Co. Then followed:
Warman, Laxon & Aslatt
Warman, Laxon & Youett
Warman Laxon, Youett & Co.
Warman & Co.
Warman & Hazlewood

Discovering exactly who some of these individuals were has also often proved to be difficult. Some were, as one would expect, experienced machinists, but many others had no knowledge of cycle manufacture, yet had the means to invest.


To date, the most frustrating company that I have had to research has been the Lion Bicycle Company, which were seen to have been in existence in Coventry in 1879. I know this because I found a reference in the 1879 Bicyclist Handbook with the company at Leicester Place, Leicester Street with the supporting text:

‘This company are working in the same premises that Singer first occupied and are building on the lines of the Humber’ and offering the ‘Lion no. 1, 2, and 3 ordinary machines.’

Fantastic, but there are suggestions that they made other, more novel machines also. In 1890, Harry Hewitt Griffin wrote:

‘These dandy-horse type machines were built by a cycle maker in Coventry in 1879 (trading as the Lion Bicycle Company, and afterwards proprietor of the chief music hall in Wolverhampton) publishing, on the back of his price list, a description of the machine’.

Now, I love being able to unravel a person behind a company, but so far this one has eluded me. In many ways I wish that Griffin hadn’t written this, or as he did anyway, why not give me a name? What if Griffin was wrong? What if it was Wigan, and not Wolverhampton?

Anyway, aside from the fact that I have now become a world authority of Wolverhampton music hall proprietors from 1879-1890, I cannot yet directly connect a single one to making bicycles in Coventry.

I’m not one to give up easily though, and should I ever discover who this man was, I’ll be sure to let you know. 

Damien often tweets updates about his latest discoveries - follow him on Twitter @DamienK73.

Store Open Day & Coventry Corporation Bus Centenary

We had a fantastic day on Saturday 12th May, as well over 1000 people flocked to our off-site stores to spend time exploring the stores (where around half of the collection is kept) and enjoying a spectacular display of vintage buses, who were lined up in commemoration of 100 years of Coventry Corporation Transport.

A selection of photographs from the day are below, and huge thanks must go to the following for making the day such a massive success:

Roger Burdett and all of his friends and colleagues at the Coventry Corporation Transport Society for doing an amazing job in organising the bus display and marshalling on the day.

Friends of Coventry Transport Museum for acting as volunteer marshalls on the day.

Steven Knight for his help in promoting the event.

James Davies, Estate Manager at Wigley Contracts for his support and flexibility in allowing us to use the site in this unusual way for the day!

Roger, Jim & Maureen Bailey

All staff at Coventry Transport Museum and many other people who supported the event in a whole range of ways.

Object of the Fortnight - 1958 Beauty Parade Article

The days of Coventry being a city brimming with rival motor companies are sadly long gone. The rivalry back then however did not simply stop at car manufacture, but extended in so many other ways, particularly in competitive sports including football, cricket, rugby and so much more. Even the odd beauty parade occurred from time to time it would seem, as testified by this Coventry Telegraph news story from 1958 concerning a Premium Bonds draw held at Coventry’s landmark store, Owen & Owen in the town centre.

Nine girls working at Coventry motor firms would ultimately be chosen to participate, yet at the time this story broke, only eight had so far been confirmed and featured– representing the well-known companies of Alvis, Armstrong-Siddeley, Daimler, Hillman, Humber, Standard, Sunbeam, and Triumph.

Jaguar it would seem were keeping their cards close to their chest, and stated that they would announce their female representative at a later time.

The article which would announce the outcome of the parade, is one that we would not appear to have, so if anyone knows the result, or even took part, then we’d love to hear from you - you can leave your memories of this event on the Coventry Memories website.

If you click on the picture you will be able to see a bigger version, but the text of the article reads as follows:

Beauty Parade in Cars Will Herald Premium Draw

Most of Coventry's major car companies have already chosen a pretty girl to represent them in the Premium Bond parade through the city next week.

Chosen for their good looks, poise, and personality, the nine girls will be driven in style in the latest of the company's cars from the city boundary to the city centre.

At Owen Owen's store Mike Hawthorn, the racing driver, will drive a vintage car across the first floor to the button he will press to start the October Premium Bond draw by "Ernie" at Lytham St. Annes.

The girls will be Miss Alvis, Miss Armstrong Siddeley, Miss Daimler, Miss Hillman, Miss Humber, Miss Jaguar, Miss Standard, Miss Sunbeam and Miss Triumph.

On the platform during rhe ceremony, the publicity girls will have a special job to do. Each will walk on carrying the letter or number making up the first winning number - worth £1000. The Lord Mayor of Coventry Alderman H. H. K. Winslow, will accompany Mike Hawthorn as he heads the big parade from Ryton in a Jaguar sports car. With him also will be actor Hubert Gregg and his wife, Pat Kirkwood.

Afterwards, it is expected that the cars taking place in the parade will be on show in the nearby car park. A tour of inspection by the Lord Mayor and his party is being arranged. All but one of the companies have made their choice. Jaguars say they will announce their publicity girl on Monday.

**
MISS ALVIS: Judged to hold the title out of a line-up of 17 girls was Miss Catherine Mary Kelly, aged 20. A newcomer to the firm - Miss Kelly joined two months ago - she works in the aero section of the production control department. Her home is at 74, Winsford Avenue, Coventry.

**

MISS DAIMLER: The 22 years old wife of a former Daimler apprentice, Mrs Rita Hollingworth, of 124 Paynes Lane, Coventry, has been with the firm for five years. She works as the secretary of the Chief Inspector, Mr. S Brown, and was chosen from 13 applicants for the title.

**
MISS ARMSTRONG SIDDELEY: Chosen this year is Miss Judy Clinch, the 19 years old assistant to the chief photographer. Miss Clinch, who lives at 39, Walsgrave Road, Coventry, has been with the company four years.

**
MISS STANDARD: Holding the title is Miss Cynthia Gray, of 8 Charter Avenue, Canley, Coventry. Aged 22, Mrs Gray is a comptometer operator.

**

MISS TRIUMPH: Seventeen years old Miss Pauline Cranford, of the postal department, was chosen. She lives at 108, Prior Deram Walk, Canley, Coventry.

**

MISS HILLMAN: Riding in the Hillman car will be Miss Hazel Butcher, of 464 Binley Road, Coventry. She works in the production department.

**
MISS HUMBER: A girl on the secretarial side, Miss Audrey Moore, of 101 Fir Tree Aveneue, Broad Lane, Coventry, will wear the 'Miss Humber' title.

**
MISS SUNBEAM: Miss Jane Curtis, employed in the Sunbeam sales department, lives at Leamington Road, Long Itchington.

If walls could tell a story...

It’s easy to get distracted in the archive of Coventry Transport Museum. Recently, on dealing with a University enquiry regarding sports and social activities of motor factory workers, I stumbled across an interesting advert taken from a 1966 issue of Modern Motoring & Travel. 

 The advert was submitted by a Coventry printing firm called ‘Edwards’ at Quinton Road, yet it was the building they were situated in that interested me. Partly recognisable today as an Ibis Hotel, the original building formed the west section of Parkside, an area located quite central to Coventry with a history of cycle and motor companies to have been occupants there over the decades. These included the likes of Velox, Iden, Deasy, Siddeley-Deasy, Armstrong-Siddeley and Rolls-Royce, now sadly all gone and Parkside today has been regenerated into a Coventry University Technology Park.

The building in the advert was most famously occupied by the Swift Company, originated in the late 1860s as the Coventry Machinists as cycle makers at nearby Cheylesmore. Also being part occupied by chocolate manufacturers during the early 1900s, thousands of ‘Swift’ cycles, motorcycles and cars were made here until the company closed around 1931. Extremely fortunate to have survived the air-raids of the Second World War, this image shows the factory very well intact, and clearly before the central ring-road was completed in 1974. The memorial seen in an Island here, still exists today but was moved to the island between Ringway St. Patricks and Ringway St. Johns.

Damien Kimberley - Curator, Research & Information

Diary of an Archive Intern

Hello everyone! My name is Daniela and unfortunately I’m writing to say goodbye to museum staff and share with all of you my experience in the archive with the curatorial folks.

Just a quick background on myself. I’m from Italy where I graduated in Science and Technology applied to Cultural Heritage.

You would say..what’s that? I know..it’s not easy to understand that somebody has to analyse chemical/physical/geological samples before starting to restore a piece of our past in order to understand the reasons for the deterioration. However, my passion for museum field started when I attended a course in Museology. Then I started to search for more exciting courses arould the world. Finally, I found the best Masters course in England (at least they say it is), Museum Studies at the Univeristy of Leicester.

Oops, I realised late that I couldn’t speak English at all! So, I decided to leave Italy a few months after my graduation, fly to England and start to learn some english words. And here I am, in the last part of the Masters course, in the Coventry Transport Museum for the work placement.

Initially, I decided to work in the archive because I think it would be like opening a magic window on our past. Yes, it’s magic because everytime I meet an object a new story appears in front of me ready to be uncovered. Indeed, you are able to discover the fascinating stories related to each object, in special way working in this archive I learnt many things about Coventry, as the birthplace of the British cycle and motor industry. As you can read on the museum website, the Museum’s archive is truly a great resource for anyone interested in the history of Coventry’s transport industry and the British transport industry in general.

One of the mini-projects I did was to re-organize the holding bay in order to clear space for new objects coming in. I met so many objects enabling me to understand who were behind some cycle and motor companies from the past Coventry. In fact, I found boxes full of bizarre and fantastic objects I have never seen before, such as old driving licenses, small parts of old cars, old plates, cycle lamps, maps and helmets just to mention a few of them.

Figure 1: some objects from the archive

For instance, I found an old black and white photograph showing a couple from Coventry on their tandem. The presenting letter written from their daughter was very touching. It tells how they coped in the World War II and their love for their tandem. That is absolutelly amazing, through an object you are able to know stories of people and time so far from you. It’s a completely dusty job but it’s definitely rewarding.

However, working in the archive is not so easy as it looks in terms of practical issues. In fact, most of the work in the archive are carried out by volunteers who are full of goodwill. I worked on many different mini-projects. I’ve unpacked boxes full of books (every day there are new objects coming in) and catalogued sales brochures, books, manuals, small objects and even the Thrust 2 (the fastest car in the world!) material purchased from J. Ackroyd (have a look to the Facebook page, they are our objects of the month!). You know my background is not in museum field but my supervisor, Megan, has been very patient and kind to teach me everything how to register an object from paperworks to digital database, mark an object and all procedures to entry an item in the museum.

Figure 2: the register and the special archive pen

Figure 3: technical manual shelves inside the archive

Figure 4: rolls aisle inside the archive

Overall it has been my first experience in a museum and i do really enjoy it! I have to thank all the curatorial team that have been so supportive with me. Now, I would like to carry on my new interest and look for a job!

Goodbye!

Oops i forgot to say one little thing about the archive world: it’s cold! So if you would like to do this job you have to wear a heavy jumper to keep you warm!!


Find out more about the Coventry Transport Museum archive.