Thomas Humber, the first bicycle in England and the Watnall Hall trike...

Humber Olympia "forecar" c.1903 outside Watnall hall gates

This picture of a curious-looking bike outside Watnall Hall's gates has links to the very first bicycle in England...

It is early 1869 and John Mayall junior, a well-known photographer of the time, is at Spencer's Gymnasium in Shoreditch, London. There he sees a large packing-case from Paris arrive followed by a Mr. Turner, whom he had seen at the Paris Exhibition of 1868, and he witnesses the unpacking of it. From it comes a something new and strange, “a piece of apparatus consisting mainly of two wheels, similar to one I had seen, not long before, in Paris.” It was what would become known as the very first "velocipede" to reach England, the world's first pedal bike. 

Or was it? Perhaps cycling history needs revising as up in Nottingham, local blacksmith Thomas Humber had built himself a velocipede based on a picture in a letter about the Paris-developed machine that was published in the English Mechanic magazine in late 1868. It took him time to work out how to ride it but in the end he did manage to make the six miles from Nottingham to Radcliffe-On-Trent. Humber eventually started a very successful Nottingham bike business, 10 years before Raleigh started, and went on to make well-respected motorbikes and cars. His Beeston factory still exists on Humber Road. It's even possible that his employer Mr. Campion, a sewing machine maker of Nottingham, had seen a Michaux velocipede at the Paris 1867 Expo and brought one back for Humber to copy. More on that and the Watnall trike later.. 

John Mayall junior 1869 with his London to Brighton velocipede

Meanwhile, back in Shoreditch, Turner and Mayall were also having riding problems. The two-wheeled mystery was helped out of its wrappings and shavings, the Gymnasium was cleared, and Mr. Turner, taking off his coat, grasped the handles of the machine, and with a short run, to Mayall’s intense surprise, vaulted on to it. Putting his feet on what were then called the “treadles”, Turner, to the astonishment of the beholders, made the circuit of the room, sitting on this bar above a pair of wheels in line that ought to have collapsed so soon as the momentum ceased; but, instead of falling down, Turner turned the front wheel at an angle to the other, and thus maintained at once a halt and a balance.

Mayall was fired with enthusiasm. The next day (Saturday) he was early at the Gymnasium, “intending to have a day of it,” and I think, from his account of what followed, that he did, in every sense, have such a day.

As Spencer had hurt himself by falling from the machine the night before, Mayall had it almost wholly to himself, and, after a few successful journeys round the room, determined to try his luck in the streets. Accordingly, at one o’clock in the afternoon, amid the plaudits of a hundred men of the adjacent factory, engaged in the congenial occupation of lounging against the blank walls in their dinner-hour, the velocipede was hoisted on to a cab and driven to Portland Place, where it was put on the pavement, and Mayall prepared to mount. Even nowadays the cycling novice requires plenty of room, and as Portland Place is well known to be the widest street in London, and nearly the most secluded, it seems probable that this intrepid pioneer deliberately chose it in order to have due scope for his evolutions.

It was a raw and muddy day, with a high wind. Mayall sprang on to the velocipede, but it slipped on the wet road, and he measured his length in the mud. The day-out was beginning famously.

Spencer, who had been worsted the night before, contented himself with giving Mayall a start when he made another attempt, and this time that courageous person got as far as the Marylebone Road, and across it on to the pavement of the other side, where he fell with a crash as though a barrow had been upset. But again vaulting into the saddle, he lumbered on into Regent’s Park, and so to the drinking-fountain near the Zoological Gardens, where, in attempting to turn round, he fell over again. Mounting once more, he returned. Looking round, “there was the park-keeper coming hastily towards me, making indignant signs. I passed quickly out of the Park gate into the roadway.” Thus early began the long warfare between Cycling and Authority.

Thence, sometimes falling into the road, with Spencer trotting after him, he reached the foot of Primrose Hill, and then, at Spencer’s home, staggered on to a sofa, and lay there, exhausted, soaked in rain and perspiration, and covered with mud. It had been in no sense a light matter to exercise with that ninety-three pounds’ weight of mingled timber and ironmongery.

The Angel, Islington

On the Monday he trundled about, up to the Angel Islington (the same one as on Monopoly boards), where curious crowds assembled, asking the uses of the machine and if the falling off and grovelling in the mud was a part of the pastime. The following day, very sore, but still undaunted, he re-visited the “Angel,” went through the City, and so to Brixton and Clapham, where, at the house of a friend, he looked over maps, and first conceived the “stupendous” idea of riding to Brighton.

London to Brighton

The following morning he endeavoured to put that plan into execution, and toiled up Brixton Hill, and so through Croydon, up the “never-ending” rise, as it seemed, of Smitham Bottom to the crest of Merstham Hill. There, tired, he half plunged into the saddle, and so thundered and clattered down hill into Merstham. At Redhill, seventeen and a half miles, utterly exhausted, he relinquished the attempt, and retired to the railway station, where he lay for some time on one of the seats until he revived. Then, to the intense admiration and amusement of the station-master and his staff, he rode about the platform, dodging the pillars, and narrowly escaping a fall on to the rails, until the London train came in.

On Wednesday, February 17th, Mayall, Rowley B. Turner, and Charles Spencer, all three on velocipedes, started from Trafalgar Square for Brighton. The party kept together until Redhill was reached, when Mayall took the lead, and eventually reached Brighton alone. The time occupied was “about” twelve hours. Being a photographer, Mayall of course caused himself to be photographed standing beside the instrument of torture on which he made that weary ride, and thus we have preserved to us the weird spectacle he presented; more like that of a Russian convict than an athletic young Englishman. A peaked cap, an attenuated frock-coat, very tight in the waist, and stiff and shiny leather leggings, completed a costume strange enough to make a modern cyclist shudder. Fearful whiskers and oily-looking long hair add to the strangeness of this historic figure.

Humber Cycles, Beeston

Back in Nottingham, Thomas Humber continued making bicycles in his shed at home at 65 Northumberland Street, in the St Ann’s district of Nottingham. He'd sold his original velocipede and made an improved version - bought by the same buyer. It took him two months to make each velocipede, he was concerned to develop improvements: solid rubber tyres, ball-bearings, while maintaining quality and reliability. He built a substantial business in manufacturing tricycles and bicycles while continuously improving their design and construction. His products were so well-made and well-designed they were known as "the aristocrat among bicycles". 

Humber and Marriot went into business in 1875 and Cooper joined them 2 years later.
The result was Humber Cycles.

In 1878 he founded Humber Cycles in Beeston. He was making bikes in Nottingham before Raleigh who started up in 1885. The Humber Olympia "forecar" pictured outside the gates of Watnall Hall with its unknown but nattily dressed rider was built in Beeston and is actually an early motor-bike powered by a 2¾ horsepower petrol engine. This example was up for auction recently...

Humber began motor vehicle production as early as 1896, displaying motorcycles at 'The International Horseless Carriage Exhibition' that year. The production of Humber vehicles was carried on at both Beeston, Nottingham and at Coventry, there being some considerable rivalry between the two factories, the Beeston works being reserved generally for production of the more expensive models.

"The Humber Olympia motor tandem is an ideal vehicle for two riders. All control is in the hands of the rear rider while the passenger is in the front, out of reach of dust and the exhaust gases, and conversation is easy. The front seat is most comfortably hung on springs and is excellently upholstered, luxurious to even the most delicate. The steering is unaffected by the absence or the presence of a passenger, and is easier than that of an ordinary tricycle". Thus did Humber describe their 1903 offering. The air-cooled engine was built under Phelon & Moore licence, featuring an automatic inlet valve and a bore and stroke of 80x77mm, giving a capacity of 403cc.

The auction catalogue says... "This forecar was formerly part of the Rootes Group Heritage Collection, which was dispersed at auction in London in October 1969. It was acquired by the preceding owner's family in the mid-1970s, and was the first Veteran on which they completed the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (in 1974).

One of the earliest surviving Humbers, this tandem forecar, with its comfortable, coachbuilt front seat, is presented in blue livery with red coachlining and furnished with deep-buttoned blue leather upholstery, while ancillary equipment includes Lucas 'King of the Road' oil side lamps and nickel-plated fittings.

Offered with a V5 registration document, this Beeston-built Humber - as identified by the engine number's 'B' prefix - has not been used actively for some years but has been well stored and the engine regularly turned. The usual careful re-commissioning will be required prior to use on the prestigious London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, while it is worth noting that 'PSL 893' is also eligible for the equally prestigious Sunbeam MCC's Pioneer Run from Epsom to Brighton, and the VMCC's Banbury Run."

Made in Nottingham -  zoom in and you will see the wheel of life on the pedal crank sprocket.
It's men walking in a clockwise direction, the same trade mark or logo is on the
Beeston factory wall still today. Anti clockwise was Coventry made.
The reg number, AL 31, is a Notts. registration.

 

Humber's factory still exists on Humber Road, Beeston, Nottingham

The Velocipede

Pierre Lallement inventor of  the velocipede
pictured in 1870

The front-driving velocipede - the well-known “boneshaker” - was invented by one Pierre Lallement of Nancy c.1865-6, and exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. There is an 1866 patent in his name. It also, like the earlier pedal-less Hobby Horse, had iron-shod wooden wheels, but had cranks and pedals, and could be ridden uphill. Lallement moved to Paris and was employed for a time by the Michaux brothers who have also been credited with the development of Lallement's invention. 

It is a curious point that, although Mayall rode a “velocipede,” and although these machines were generally so-called for a year or two after their introduction, the word “bicycle” is claimed to have been first used in the Times in the early part of 1868; and certainly we find in the Daily News of September 7th in that year an allusion, in grotesque spelling, to “bysicles and trisicles which we saw at the Champs Elysées and the Bois de Boulogne this summer.”

Who was first?

We have no exact dates about when Thomas Humber first built his velocipede but it seems he had the plans in 1868 and the ability to build it. That would put him before the Turner and Mayall's Shorditch machine. The most compelling evidence is that Humber's Nottingham employer William Campion saw a Michaux at the Paris 1867 Expo, where he was displaying his own sewing machines, and brought it back to Nottingham for Humber to copy.

A restored Michaux velocipede from c.1867

Sources - Charles Harper - The Brighton Road; THE HUMBER STORY 1868 – 1932 - Author: A.B. Demaus and J.C. Tarring; Humber Cycles Wikipedia; https://onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk/1866-michaux-serpentine-velocipede/; https://historical.cc/membersbikes/2014/2/3/michaux-velocipede