Stamford used to be car free until The Pick Motor Company came along

One of the few positive effects of the coronavirus pandemic has been quieter roads, as most people stay away from school, workplaces and shops.

Turn back the clock just over 100 years and Stamford was a relatively car-free place, even with The Great North Road running through its heart.

However, one man was playing a part in changing this by making the town a home of vehicle manufacturing.

John Henry Pick - known as Jack - founded The Pick Motor Company Ltd, which operated in Stamford from 1899 to 1925.

The business had its roots on the corner of Brazenose Lane and St Leonard’s Street, now home to a hair salon, where the former Blackstone employee used his engineering knowledge to design and make farm implements, including a type of hoe.

In 1896 he went into partnership with AJ Pledger - a name now associated with horseshoes - and for three years they sold bicycles to people in and around town.

That they didn’t create their own model of bike or motorbike is strange, because in 1899 Pick set up The Pick Motor Company Ltd and went straight into the production of his first vehicle - a voiturette.

This rather exotic-sounding name for a small car was also used by French manufacturer Renault for its very first automobile.

Pick’s other early vehicle was the rather less glamorously named ‘motor dogcart’, a wooden-bodied small car. Both were exhibited at the 1900 Stanley Cycle Show at the world-renowned Crystal Palace in London, and this may explain why some of the surviving Pick cars can be found in Australia and New Zealand.

Many of the parts for the cars were made locally by companies that included Stamford’s engineering firm, Blackstone. It was never entirely clear whether the supply to Pick was a true business arrangement, or simply favours called in to his ex-colleagues.

The Pick Motor Company was quite successful in the early years, even producing a racing car capable of speeds of 50mph in 1909. By then Pick had moved to premises in High St Martin’s, now an antiques centre.

It was during this period that the company struggled and an attempt was made to diversify. Pick briefly produced a motorcycle, although only a few were ever made.

Going back to his previous, farming machinery background, Pick then produced a tractor plough, but this did little to improve the company’s financial situation, despite it being quite an innovative design.

In 1923, The Pick Motor Company was refinanced with the help of a local investor and Pick looked to produce a large 22.5hp sports saloon car costing £450.

This could have been a real turning point, but sadly became Pick’s swansong.

Following a short boom after the First World War, demand for large and powerful cars declined and the competition, such as the Austin 7, was a much smaller and more affordable proposition with 10hp costing £165.

A new ‘vehicle tax’, with a charge of £1 per horse power, helped to seal the fate of the saloon and it was doubtful if any of Pick’s 1923 car ever sold. No photographs seem to exist and only the earlier model cars have survived.

The Pick Motor Company went into voluntarily administration in 1925 and Stamford’s brief history of car production came to an end.

by Stuart Hodgkinson from Stamford. He is an innovation design engineer at Baker Perkins in Peterborough.