Gerry Brooke looks at a new book about Richard Stephens and his Clevedon Motor Car

STANDFIRST

Bill Fairney was so taken with the work of Richard Stephens that he decided to write a book about the little known Clevedon motor car manufacturer.

STORY.

Victorian engineer Richard Stephens was a man worthy of his times - an inventor credited with producing the very first all British car with independent suspension.

And amazingly it all happened in the sleepy little seaside town of Clevedon.

However Stephens’ start in life - working in a Welsh coal mine at the age of seven - couldn’t have been more humble.

Born in Cwmbran in 1856 the young Stephens rose through the ranks to hold a responsible position operating the mine’s steam engines.

As a skilled rock driller he later worked in mines in Australia, the USA and Canada and several of his children were born overseas.

While in America, where he met the inventor Thomas Edison, and possibly Henry Ford, he became interested in early motor car development.

Cycling, however, was still all the rage and when he returned to England he settled in Clevedon to set up a bicycle making business.

But the bug had bitten and in 1897/8 Stephens designed and built his own prototype car.

Six-seater Hackney carriages and motor buses came later.

Stephens also designed the engines for these very novel vehicles with their fully independent front suspension - a large transverse leaf-spring between the two front wheels and coil springs in the vertical tubes.

Carrying out most of his developments in a workshop just off Clevedon’s Triangle the engineer constructed about a dozen cars in all, most of which were sold locally.

After engaging Charles Redrup, who had married his niece, as an after sales engineer and chauffeur, the two would often be seen motoring tourists around the North Somerset countryside.

Under contract with the GWR (Great Western Railway) Stephens also ran a Hackney carriage service through the beautiful Gordano valley between Clevedon and Portishead.

Stephens' enterprises were funded by the a keen local squire and potter, Sir Edmund Elton of Clevedon Court.

Sir Edmund was also something of an inventor and in 1907 the two jointly developed an automatic gas lighter which, remotely operated, would switch the street lights on and off.

In the same year the Portishead to Clevedon Light Railway (WC and P) was completed leading to Stephens selling off his Hackney fleet.

But he kept his prototype car, which he maintained in a road worthy condition, and his first Hackney, which he cut up and stored in tea-chests.

In 1908 he purchased a fleet of Ford Model T cars which he used to run a taxi service.

But Stephens was nothing if not inventive.

During World War I he patented an adjustable brake shoe - a metal wedge screwed between the drum-brake shoes to take up wear - the basis of all such shoes today - as well as folding stretchers for ambulances

After the war had ended, in 1919, Stephens moved his works to London in order to meet demand.

But he continued to operate his prototype car and in 1927 he entered it for the first London to Brighton run, where it was awarded a gold medal.

Stephens died in 1932 but his sons continued to run the car which performed well in many veteran car rallies.

In 1951 it appeared in the film The Magic Box, and in 1953, in Genevieve.

When Stephens' eldest son was no longer able to drive the vehicle he sold it to the Loder family, the owners of Leonardslee Gardens in Sussex.

Leonardslee hold the country’s finest collections of Victorian cars - all built before 1901 - including the Bonnet, a very early experimental car from the 1880s.

Almost all them have completed the London to Brighton veteran car run.

The Loder’s also decided to buy Stephen’s original Hackney carriage, still packed away in its tea-chests, and over a period of ten years lovingly restored it to working order.

Entered into the London to Brighton run in 1981 it was the very first car to arrive at the sea-front.

And in 1995 both cars were entered into the Evelyn Ellis Rally in celebration of the centenary of the UK’s first recorded motor car journey.

The two Stephens cars, kept in immaculate road worthy condition, still run from time to time in various veteran car rallies.

A few years ago the cars returned to Clevedon to be exhibited on The Triangle in front of their old birthplace - the old Stephens works, now a St. Peters Hospice shop.

It was very much a fitting tribute to a great engineer.

Richard Stephens and the Clevedon Motor Cars by William Fairney costs £13.95 (plus £2.80 post and packing)

It is available from the author at: Diesel Publishing at 2,The Tithe Barn, High Street, Hawkesbury Upton,South Glos GL9 1AY

For more details ring: O1454 238553