In 1897 the South Bucks Standard pondered whether "vehicles worked by steam, electricity or some other power not yet discovered" would ever become a standard method of transit. The reason for their contemplation was the appearance of what they considered to be the first ever motor car to grace the streets of Marlow. The sight of a horseless carriage complete with passengers going at a smart pace along the High Street "astonished" passers by. They did not know to whom it belonged. The following year, two such vehicles passing through to Henley were described as an "uncommon spectacle as yet in Marlow."
Yet just two years later, the same paper said that hardly an hour went by without the "peculiar rumbling" of a car being heard in the town. The Marlow families known to have a car in 1899 include Max Lindlar of Marlow Lodge (previously Suffolk Lodge, off Station Rd,) and surgeon Mr Allingham who split his time between London and Blounts Farm house, and then had a house built at Marlow Common. In 1901 Allingham's driver suffered severe cuts and bruises when the car in which he was the only traveller skidded on ice in Oxford Lane and then overturned. The car was smashed up itself and naturally the scene attracted a curious crowd.
There were many complaints of speeding vehicles but our ancestors expectations of how fast a motor car should travel were far different from our own. For example complaints of cars "sweeping" down Oxford Rd towards the West Street corner at a dangerous pace were said to be travelling at as much as ...12mph. (1903)
Car de Luxe
As times move on you can see the carriage builders, cycle manufacturers, blacksmiths and inns adapting to the times and offering services to cater for motorists too. For example in 1902 Walker's Forge would not only competently shoe your horse but were also advertising themselves as "tyresmiths". Hotels proudly announced that they had a garage and perhaps an inspection pit for running repairs where once they might have boasted of fine stabling. The Crown Hotel was one of these in 1915.
C Drye, as seen above in 1905, started out as Warner & Drye Carriage Builders but gradually changed their focus to encompass first bicycles then cars. They eventually called themselves The Marlow Carriage and Motor Car Co. They would still build you a horse drawn carriage to order, but could also fix your car. Their main premises was in the High Street where W H Smith is now. Cycle depot C J Bateman's in Station Road also began to describe themselves as a "Motor and Cycle engineer" and most of the towns many cycle sellers and manufacturers began catering for motor cyclists at least. The Station Road premises became the Marlow Motor Car and Engineering Co, offering motor repairs of every description thanks to the inspection pit. They tried to offer every service an Edwardian motorist could wish for, from driving lessons to the ability to hire an expert chauffeur and/or vehicle at a moments notice. They also sold cars as the district agent for the Belsize Car. In 1907 they advertised the Belize 6 Cylinder as the Car De Luxe. Sounds perfect.
The condition of Marlow's roads and pavements caused a lot of angst in the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Back in the 1840's sand was sprinkled on the highway to improve conditions, but it can't have helped much. William Crouch Junior who made a living from sweeping the dung of the highway was fined in 1843 for damaging the road surface by taking the sand up accidentally while removing the manure. Perhaps the authorities should have employed him instead. A common complaint was the authorities did not notice problems with the road surface very quickly, and once they did it took endless meetings and procrastination to get something done. Those with the power to fix the situation were reluctant to begin work that would have to be charged to the rates. William was not the only person to earn an income from collecting road scrapings in those pre car days. The scrapings, chiefly dung, were sold on to gardeners and farmers and the right to collect them from a specific area had been sold by the authorities in turn. Later the council, or their sub contactor would be responsible for sweeping the roads and disposing of any rubbish. (See note 1)
A plague of dust and mud
The problem of swirling dust was also a cause for complaints. It was commented on by visitors and even Punch made a mention of it - "Oh why doesn't Marlow water it's one great street?" The water would dampen down the dust in theory, but too much made surfaces sticky and unpleasant in a different way. And of course, then winter rains sometimes caused "a plague of mud" which caused "much suffering" to householders and business in 1899. The roads developed for housing around this time suffered the most as they were not necessarily on the regular road watering or maintenance schedule. In 1908 the 24 households then in Claremont Road petitioned the council to do something about the atrocious road and path conditions in their road. The parish surveyor was sent to make a report but change came slowly. At this time more of the side streets saw their "footpaths" tarred as they described it, for example Glade Road and Institute Road in 1910. (The main roads themselves had been "tarred" from 1909. The rest were surfaced with "field flints" and gravel.)
If Marlow had thought horse drawn vehicles bought up the dust, it was nothing compared to the work of the motor cars. At a Marlow Urban District Council meeting in 1904, those attending complained that cars passing down the street meant everyone in the vicinity got coated with filth and that the choking dust clouds lingered in the air some time afterwards. This made walking the streets very unpleasant indeed. The problem was at its worst on Sunday because the roads were not watered (damped down in order to suppress dust) then. This is when things got complicated. Some present considered that asking people to work on a Sunday on the roads would be wrong and not sufficiently justified by the fact doing so would make life easier for those walking to and from church services. Some actually considered it monstrous that driving was considered a Sunday suitable activity at all. Why should the "disgraceful" behaviour of a few motorists force others to break the Sabbath? Aside from a few arguments about what did and didn't count as the Sabbath, the alternative voices argued that those objecting to Sunday labour did not make opposition if the lamps in their streets were lit on Sundays by a worker and so on. In the end a compromise was made that the main streets would continue to be watered on a Saturday but would be done later in the day than before so the effects would hopefully last until Sunday Morning. They didn't, and complaints flooded back in.
Tarring the roads themselves didn't solve all the problems of dust, but it did help tremendously. Of course not everyone was satisfied. In 1910 the main street of Bisham was now "a tarred abomination, smelling evilly, and wearing a squalid and abominable look" due to the arrival of the motor car. The village had now "the unwelcome choice of two evils; to be half choked with billows of dust, or to coat its roads with tar compositions " according to a travel guide.
Reports of early car accidents are outnumbered by those involving Edwardian motorcyclists. For example in 1904 motorcyclist Cecil Adrian Stacey of Bisham was fined for dangerous driving after he knocked Marlow cyclist, Sidney James Chalk off his bicycle in the High Street. He was going out of Institute Road at a "considerable pace" - 10mph - and took the corner badly. He swerved into the wrong side of the road and then tried to squeeze through a narrow gap between the cyclist and a cart. He knocked down Sidney by doing so. He continued on without checking what happened to the victim, who was thankfully not seriously hurt.
Another hazard for wannabe motorists was a lack of visible street names. The Parish council complained about this in 1895 but it took another three and a half years for a new batch of handsome blue enamel plaques to be ordered from Mr Batting. Not all roads were labelled but funding was again the issue.
Town trade killed by the motor car?
The motor car was here to stay. Marlow was a town that did so much trade from visitors for the "river season" and day trippers too that increased transport availability must have bought some additional visitors in. But in 1913 Edward Riley (the man who gave Riley Recreation ground to Marlow) thought that trade in the town had been "killed by the motor car". This is an interesting comment considering how few Marlow residents could have afforded to own a car at that time. Perhaps so many of the wealthier summer only residents spent their time motoring off to access bigger shops and attractions that the town traders no longer saw the trade boost they had came to rely on.
For more on other forms of transport see a post on Victorian and Edwardian Marlow Cyclists and Cycle Manufacturers/sellers here
And information on the Wyatt stagecoach masters here
Other transport related posts are featured on the General Marlow History menu option.
Notes.
1. The issue of where to dispose of these scrapings and rubbish caused a lot of angst, especially as those collecting the waste for the council were accused of tipping it into any old ditch or corner, most notoriously around Strong Beer Acre (Station Road, 1897 use of a name with long heritage for the general area). The muted use of the old gravel pit at what we would now call Seymour Court Road at the top of Dean Street was ridiculed by the more progressive council members who pointed out this meant moving the rubbish dump closer to one of the most populous areas of Marlow, which would hardly deal with the problem. The pit would be better filled in they said, as it was old and unsightly. There is indeed now housing on the site.
Written and researched by Kathryn Day.
Related posts:
More general Marlow history and travel related posts can be found under the General History listing here
More about the Lindlars and other residences of Marlow Lodge here
All mentions of a person on the blog can be found under the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu.
Sources
The Horseless Age Vol 21 (The Horseless Age Co, 1911)
The Spectator June 15 1895, digitised by Google Books.
Berks Chronicle 21 February 1843, copy from the British Library.
South Bucks Standard 9 July & October 1 1897, 20 May 1898, 6 & 13 January, 13 October 1899, 18 April 1902, 10 April 1903, 08 May 1908 as above.
South Bucks Free Press 28 June 1898, 27 December 1901, June 10 1904, October 18 1907 as above
Punch - August 21 1886 Volume 1, digitised by Google.
Marlow Guide 1905
Harper, Charles George - Thames Valley Villages. (Chapman 1910)
©Marlow Ancestors
