Motor Cities: Coventry

The British motor industry was born in Coventry and many of its most famous car makers came from Coventry. That historic city and the wider West Midlands are also where our motor industry would evolve from its humble beginnings to become, in the early post-war years, Europe’s largest and globally second only to the US. Today, we rank at number 18…

The UK’s motor industry was a late developer, lagging behind France, Germany and the USA. Indeed Victorian Britain was strangely hostile to the new ‘horseless carriage’, quickly introducing restrictions on its use, speed and size.

Some say that a nation of horse lovers wanted to preserve the traditional role of equine transport. Others blame politicians who had acquired significant financial interests in the railways and were loath to see any shift to road transport. Plus, there was growing kickback to the speed, smoke and squalor of the Industrial Revolution. To some, these noisome and noisy new road machines were a step too far.