THE FAMILY CAR
As motoring became more stressful and expensive over the last fifty years the role of the car changed and because I am so old, it gets to the stage where it becomes contemporary history so I thought I'd go for a wander in the undergrowth. My title contains a clue, the phrase 'family car' isn't heard much today because the role of the car has changed, the most likely reason that a working family has a car these days is because it is needed for commuting to work, taking the children to school or doing the big family shop at an out of town supermarket.
Until about 1920, the motor car was a novelty confined to the better off. Harold Duxbury told me that the first he ever saw was in 1906. It was driven by Joe Standing who was a printer at Butts Top, he said the thing he noticed was that Joe wore his cap back to front to stop it blowing off. Fred Inman told me the first car in Earby was a Model 'T' Ford, affectionately called 'The Tin Lizzie'. It was owned by a man called Caswell who was the licensee of the Lina Laithe pub, now the Punchbowl. Henry Ford started production of the Model 'T' in Chicago in 1908 and by 1911 had built a factory at Trafford Park in Manchester so this would be sometime after 1911. The first cars produced sold for £136, the price of a terraced house, so you had to be well off to own one. Family doctors were amongst the first car owners, they had the income to buy one and the need for transport to get round their house calls.
In 'This Is My Life' Jack Griffin gives a lot of information about cars. He was a chauffeur and bus driver for most of his life. Incidentally, the word chauffeur comes from the French, literally 'he who produces steam'. Many early cars were steam powered and it started there. Jack relates that when he came back from the war in 1918 cars had arrived in Barlick. He mentions a Mr Bailey who had an Argyll, Mr Ernest Gill had a Whippet, Mr Gooding of Church Street had a Swift and James Nutter and Mr Horsfield, both manufacturers, had cars. Mr Alfred Curran worked for a lady who lived at Coates, he drove her round in a pony and trap but when she bought a Humber car he learned to drive it. Mr Sainty drove a horse and trap for Dr Alderton and learned to drive when this was replaced by a Humber. One day he was waiting for the doctor at Barnsey Shed where he was inspecting school leavers before they could be employed in the mill. He decided to start the car. In those days there were no electric self-starters, you had to use the starting handle at the front below the radiator. He made a mistake and left the car in gear so as it started it set off forwards, knocking him out of the way and trundled into the canal. They had to bring in a canal barge with a crane on it to lift it out! I don't think Dr Alderton would be pleased.
Jack also mentions early motor-dealing in Barlick. A man called Duke Slater had a pie shop on Church Street. He had always been a horse and pony dealer and one day he went to George Pemberton's motor auction on Deansgate in Manchester taking Jack with him. Duke bought two cars and Jack drove one, a Humber, back to Barlick. In passing he told a story about Duke. Four men walked past the shop one day with musical instruments, these were hard times and they were busking for a crust. Duke said that if they stood at the top of Butts and met the workers coming out of the mill for dinner with a Christmas Carol he would give them a free dinner. They played 'Christian's Awake' and marched in front of the workers along Church street even though it was a hot day in summer. They got their free dinner!
I have found several accounts of road accidents but only one that proved fatal. The Craven Herald of 18th of January 1929 has a report of a child being run over in Barlick at the junction of Skipton Road and Station Road. The car was driven by Charles Edward Aldersley of Coates Hall and the witnesses agreed he was only doing six to eight miles an hour and couldn't have avoided hitting the child, Stuart Parker of 5 Clayton Street. He was taken to Nutter's Temperance Bar where doctors Glen and Bradshaw attended him. He died in Victoria Hospital at Burnley the following day. I'd better not leave Earby out! There was a report of a motoring offence in the edition of the 8th of February 1929, Henry Brown, engineer of Earby was fined 10/- for driving a car with a 'rusty and dirty' number plate in Water Street on January 23rd.
During the 1920s, despite bad trade in the mills, many families with children working and tipping up had rising incomes and as second-hand cars came on the market ownership of 'the family car' became possible. These were bought mainly as status symbols and the practice of taking the family for a run in the country, or even for some brave souls, to the seaside became a popular weekend pastime. Both cars and roads had improved and garages selling fuel and services became commonplace on the roadside. In the early days fuel was stocked mainly by cycle shops and ironmongers and was sold in two gallon tin cans, you always started off with a full tank and many cars had a compartment on the running board to hold a spare tin.
You may have noticed that I haven't used the word petrol. 'Petrol' was first used as the name of a refined petroleum product around 1870 by British wholesaler Carless, Capel and Leonard, who marketed it as a solvent. When the product later found a new use as a motor fuel, it was suggested to Carless that they register the trade mark 'Petrol', but by this time the word was already in general use, possibly inspired by the French pétrole and the registration was not allowed. Carless registered a number of alternative names for the product, while their competitors used the term "motor spirit" until the 1930s. In most other parts of the world the word 'gasoline' was used.
I've done it again haven't I! I've run out of space this week but I shall return and we'll look at the joys of motoring in the family car.
An early Ford Model 'T' car. The Tin Lizzie.
