Coventry has a remarkable bicycle manufacturing heritage. From the first velocipedes built in 1868, the city went on to become the home of the British Cycle Industry, and at one time produced the greatest output of cycles in the world – with well in excess of 350 individual cycle manufacturers over a 100 year period.The Coventry Machinists’ Company were the first in Britain to mass produce cycles, and steadily, more and more companies were established in the city. Soon Coventry became internationally recognised as being a place where only the very best machines were made, and the name ‘Coventry’ itself became a stamp of quality engineering and fine craftsmanship.Richly illustrated with 100 outstanding photographs from The Coventry Transport Museum, many previously unpublished, this is the first book of its kind to cover the history of Coventry bicycle manufacture and the men who built them. From Dunlop, Hobart, Singer, Premier, Rover, and Triumph to other less well known local companies, their legacies are still enjoyed by cyclists today.

Coventry has a remarkable bicycle manufacturing heritage. From the first velocipedes built in 1868, the city went on to become the home of the British cycle industry and at one time produced the greatest output of cycles in the world – with well in excess of 450 individual cycle manufacturers over a 100-year period. The Coventry Machinists Company were the first in Britain to mass-produce cycles, and steadily, more and more companies were established in the city. Soon Coventry became internationally recognised as a place where only the very best machines were made, and the name 'Coventry' itself became a stamp of quality engineering and fine craftsmanship. Richly illustrated with over 100 outstanding images from Coventry History Centre, many previously unpublished, this is the first book of its kind to cover the history of Coventry bicycle manufacture and the people who built them. From Dunlop, Hobart, Singer, Premier, Rover and Triumph to other lesser-known local companies, their legacies are still enjoyed by cyclists and local historians today.

Coventry, home of the cycle industry, was also to become the birthplace of the motor industry when the Daimler Company became the first in Britain to mass produce cars in the late 1890s. Spearheaded by H.J. Lawson, Coventry soon became a hub of motoring activity, and by the early 1900s was teaming with small and large companies, testing cars, motor-bicycles and tricycles around the local streets and surrounding country lanes. Many of these companies had previously been established as cycle manufacturers, yet introduced engines to their cycle frames in various forms, as well as producing safer three- and four-wheeled experimental machines. Other companies were established solely as motor manufacturers, many were short-lived, but others would survive and prosper. This new-found industry soon attracted a new type of worker to Coventry, specialised in mechanical engineering. These men and their families came from all parts of the UK and beyond, and made new lives for themselves in the city. Coventry has been home to well in excess of 100 independent motor manufacturers, but in recent years the city has suffered greatly with the loss of huge companied like Jaguar and Peugeot. The legacy of many of these historic cars can, however, still be enjoyed through museums and private collections. This outstanding volume is illustrated with 200 archive photographs and ephemera from the collection held at Coventry Transport Museum, and is a valuable record of the motor companies and their machines, as well as the individuals who both founded and worked for these manufacturers.

Examines the role of cycling in the social history of the Western World.

The nineteenth century's "mechanical horse" offered an exciting new world of transportation for all and ushered in an era of changes that resonates to the present day, changes cataloged and described in a fascinating history of an engineering marvel.

This book is the first comprehensive history of the development of the British bicycle industry from the perspective of business and economic history. Focusing on themes such as entrepreneurship, personal capitalism, and organisational, technological and cultural change, the shifting fortunes of the industry are traced through the business history of one of its leading firms, Raleigh. The history of the company is then set within the context of more general trends in the industry’s evolution over three chronological periods: 1870 to 1914, 1914 to 1939, and 1939 to 1960. In addition to the story of Raleigh, the business activities of other leading bicycle firms such as Rudge-Whitworth, Hercules, BSA, J. A. Phillips and BCC, the bicycle division of Tube Investments, are examined to inform our understanding of the business evolution of the industry. The book demonstrates that the British bicycle industry was both tenacious and dynamic, typified by the personal leadership of entrepreneurs such as Frank and Harold Bowden at Raleigh.

This is the first history of the bicycle to trace not only the technical background to its invention, but also to contrast its social and cultural impact in different parts of the world, and assess its future as a continuing global phenomenon.

NPR's Favorite Books of 2019 Rachel Cusk redrew the boundaries of fiction with the Outline Trilogy, three “literary masterpieces” (The Washington Post) whose narrator, Faye, perceives the world with a glinting, unsparing intelligence while remaining opaque to the reader. Lauded for the precision of her prose and the quality of her insight, Cusk is a writer of uncommon brilliance. Now, in Coventry, she gathers a selection of her nonfiction writings that both offers new insights on the themes at the heart of her fiction and forges a startling critical voice on some of our most urgent personal, social, and artistic questions. Coventry encompasses memoir, cultural criticism, and writing about literature, with pieces on family life, gender, and politics, and on D. H. Lawrence, Françoise Sagan, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Named for an essay Cusk published in Granta (“Every so often, for offences actual or hypothetical, my mother and father stop speaking to me. There’s a funny phrase for this phenomenon in England: it’s called being sent to Coventry”), this collection is pure Cusk and essential reading for our age: fearless, unrepentantly erudite, and dazzling to behold.

0 0 1 111 636 The Images Publishing Group 5 1 746 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} Paul Farren claims he and his wife Charlie have around 85 percent of the pre-1900 bicycles in Australia – all under one roof in a Melbourne warehouse-cum-museum. Thirty years of hunting them down and collecting has resulted in one of the most impressive early bike collections in the world. It includes 160 pre-1900 bicycles, including hobby horses, boneshakers and Penny Farthings, as well as early 20th-century models. The collection charts the development of the bicycle, which foreshadows the invention of the motor car in many surprising ways. It also shows wider social change and the role the bicycle has played in female emancipation, war and its progression from plaything of the wealthy to utilitarian mode of transport of the masses.