the yeovil motor Carriage Company
the yeovil motor car co. ltd.
One of Britain's first automobile producing companies
In 1890 both Percy Petter and his twin brother Ernest left school to start their apprenticeship in the ironmongery and foundry business run by their father James Bazeley Petter. By 1892 the brothers had designed and produced a self-propelled oil engine and in 1895, in conjunction with their Engineer Ben Jacobs, they developed a new engine of one horse-power designed specifically to propel a 'horseless carriage'.
They, together with their inventive Engineer and designer Ben Jacobs, produced the first motor car with an internal combustion engine to be made in the United Kingdom.
Using a converted four wheel horse-drawn phaeton and a 3hp Petter horizontal oil engine, the vehicle was constructed at the Park Road carriage works of Hill and Boll in Park Street. It weighed 9cwt (457kg), including the 120lb (54kg) of the Petter engine with its flywheel and side bars, and had a top speed of 12 miles per hour.
The brothers, with their father, formed the Yeovil Motor Car Co Ltd in 1895, making small two-person motor carriages at their foundry in Huish / Clarence Street and in conjunction with carriage makers Hill & Boll of Park Road. In all some twelve 'horseless carriages' were developed. This same year the company was one of four that offered automobiles for trials at Chelsea with a prize of a thousand guineas and their twelfth model, the Yeovil Car, was exhibited at the 1897 Motor Car Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace, both events being organised by 'The Engineer' magazine. Alas they did not win the prize money.
In March 1899 Petters announced in 'The Autocar' magazine that they were ceasing development and production of heavy oil carriages to concentrate on electric carriages. However they failed to achieve the commercial success they had hoped for with automobiles, indeed they almost bankrupted their company, and consequently adapted their engines for agricultural and industrial use.
gallery
This photograph appeared in the 3 April 1896 edition of 'The Engineer' magazine, captioned "Petter and Hill and Boll's Oil-Motor Carriage" with an accompanying article and shows James Petter, with twin sons Percy and Ernest in the rear seat, on one of their automobiles. Percy Petter later wrote in his memoirs "In those days the law required that every mechanically propelled vehicle should be proceeded by a man walking with a red flag, and, as the horses were quite unaccustomed to 'Horseless Carriages,' they usually took fright when they saw one coming, and this gave us a lot of trouble."
The 'Yeovil Car', an illustration from 'The Engineer' magazine of 1897.