Sunday 21 April 2019

Sunday Snap – The Meeting Place


We were in Derbyshire for last week's Sunday Snap remembering the daring exploits of 617 Squadron. I asked what film it inspired and the answer is

Dambusters

Flying low with the right answer were Susan, Sarah, Sarah, Minoru and Kara.

We're visiting Manchester this week and the sumptuous surroundings of the Midland Hotel. In 1904 it became the appropriate location of the first meeting of two men who went on to form the most famous luxury car brand in the world.

Henry had started his electrical and mechanical business twenty years previously. He had a tough start in life when his father died in 1872 when Henry was only nine years old. After just one year of schooling he was forced to go out to work selling newspapers and delivering telegrams to help with the family finances. He was able to start an apprenticeship with the Great Northern Railway with financial assistance from his aunt. This is turn led to jobs with a tool making company and with the Electric Light and Power Company working on street and theatre lighting. He moved to Manchester and went into partnership with Ernest Claremont to set up a business making domestic electric fittings. This later developed into making dynamos and electric cranes.

A change of direction was needed for Henry's company and he decided to focus on the manufacture of motor cars. At the turn of the 20th century he bought some cars in from France but was not impressed with them. Instead he started to designed his own and produced three cars. One of the company directors, Henry Edmunds, bought one of the cars and showed it to his friend Charles. At the time Charles owned a car dealership in Fulham selling imported Peugeot cars from France. Edmunds suggested to Charles that he and Henry should meet and on the 4th May 1904 they did so at the Midland Hotel. Charles was so impressed with Henry's car that he agreed to take all the cars that Henry could make and be the exclusive seller of them. With this agreement came a renaming for the brand as they joined their surnames together.

Charles had had a completely different upbringing to Henry. He had been born into a wealthy family and attended Eton before going to university at Cambridge to study mechanical and applied science. He loved any type of machine that moved – bicycles, yachts, cars, hot air balloons and aeroplanes. Sadly it was to cost him his life as at the age of just 32. In 1910 he was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident in a powered aircraft. This week's question is

What luxury car company did Henry and Charles form?

We were joined last week by Susan and a trip to the safari park. Sarah found the original Alton Towers. With a red umbrella quilt pattern Soma has been getting ready for April showers. It was a windy view for Sarah. In Japan Minoru visited a botanical garden near the snow topped mountains. Sara's favourite things this week include a bunch of peach carnations and a house plant with something else emerging from it! Kara's adventures this week have taken her white water rafting and to the top of Snowdon. In New Zealand Betty has found a bit of this and that including some yellow eyed penguins and some molar shaped stones. Finally, Jesh has been on a very long and extended road trip.

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Sunday Snap

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6 comments:

  1. If I remember correctly it’s Rolls Royce. We had a factory where I love up until recently that manufactured them xx

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  2. It must be Rolls Royce! That's the most luxurious car brand there is. What an interesting story behind it.

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  3. Rolls Royce was the name that came to mind. I didn't know the story but had Henry Royce in the back of my mind.

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  4. That will be Rolls Royce, sorry comments are late, I can't comment on your blog at all from my phone now #Sundaysnap

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  5. Hi! ItS easy for me. It is Rolls Royce. Thanks for sharing.

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  6. Hope you had a lovely Easter, Ness! Thanks for hosting and have a lovely rest of the week:)

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