Image ID: 08157

Harrison & Co. Motor Engineers and Photographers

Carter Gate
Newark on Trent
England

This picture shows the original frontage with W. Harrison, Butcher's shop, next door (right). The car in the picture is a Darracq of 1904 issued with registration number AL370 on 3rd August 1904 to James Hole & Co. Ltd., Castle Brewery, Newark. The registration was transferred on 3rd June 1905 to William P.L. Harrison, Beaumond Cross, Newark. The photographer of this picture was William Percy Lowe Harrison. Mr Harrison became one of Newark's first motor enthusiasts and having been bitten by the automobile bug began to devote much of his spare time to developing this interest. By 1903-4 he had expanded his electrical engineering business on Cartergate into one of Newark's first motor garages becoming an agent for the Glasgow-based Argyll Motor Co Ltd. He also sold bicycles, forecars and continental models of motor car. He was also a keen amateur photographer and during the early 1900s took many fascinating photographs of the vehicles which he sold through his garage. In 1900 the Automobile Club of Great Britain organised a mammoth 1000 mile endurance trial passing through all the major towns in the country. For the Lincoln-Newark leg of the journey the Newark Advertiser invited William Percy Lowe Harrison to ride with one of the contestants and make a special report for the paper. Joining the cars as they waited to set off from Lincoln Mr Harrison chose to ride in a 6hp Parisian Daimler Carriage commenting that once underway the car's tendency to rattle and vibrate completely disappeared being replaced by a most pleasing 'pulsating rapture'. He continued: 'At last with a warning note from our alarm we glided out of Lincoln and quickly passing villas and suburban residences were soon out into open country. 'At every lane end and hamlet were clusters of country folk. It was but a passing glimpse they got of us for we scudded past them swift as the arrow to its mark. 'There is an exhilaration about motoring which one has to experience to understand. 'The thrill of the switchback is there and the pleasurable excitement of flying through the air acts like a tonic.' Arriving at Newark the cars proceeded along Northgate Castlegate Lombard Street and Victoria Street heading for the Spring House where afternoon tea was to be taken. Harrison would have been at the cutting edge of the technology of his time, and his photographs of his shops and vehicles give us a rare insight into Edwardian innovations in transport and the application of science to everyday life.

Date: 1905

Organisation Reference: NCCE001964

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