How a Paris visit led to Coventry starting a British bicycle boom

It might sound strange to say that a sewing machine, a factory in Coventry and a trip to France shaped how the world moves today.

But these three things led to an invention which hundreds of thousands of people use to get to work on a daily basis in the UK.

Coventry was at the centre of the bicycle industry in the late 1800s with the newest innovations in two-wheeled pedal cycles being tested through its streets, as told in the latest episode of the BBC’s Secret Coventry series.

A number of men were involved – engineering the best frames and forms, seeing the dangerous and difficult-to-use penny farthing turn into a close relative of today’s bicycle.

It all started in the 1860s when a man called James Starley moved to Coventry to launch the sewing machine firm, the Coventry Sewing Machine Company.

The business was later renamed the European Sewing Machine Company and sold models all over the world.

Another man, Rowley B. Turner, nephew of Starley’s co-owner, was working as an agent for the company in Paris when experts said he spotted a funny-looking vehicle which intrigued him.

In 1868, he decided to return to Coventry with one of the contraptions, known as velocipedes – a pedal cycle with a larger wheel at the front.

Starley then set out developing a new form of the bicycle, alongside another man, William Hillman, which they called The Ordinary – otherwise known as the penny farthing.

These early bicycles had a large front wheel and a much smaller rear wheel but not everyone was a fan.

“The only people who could use penny farthings were young athletic men – if you were old or infirm or even if you’re a female you can’t ride these things,” author and historian Damien Kimberly said.

At the time in Coventry, bicycle manufacturers were popping up across the city, all trying to improve the model to gain a competitive edge.

In 1881, Starley’s nephew, John Kemp Starley took over his company and seven years later released a new type of bicycle – the Rover safety bicycle, which quickly knocked the penny farthing off its popular perch.

“It was a bit crude,” Mr Kimberly said.

“It’s a bit more bolted together in different bits but it was essentially the making of what we still see today as a modern bicycle.

“The reason why this became so successful is not just because of the design, but at the same time John Boyd Dunlop’s pneumatic (inflatable) tyre was being released.

“So this all came together and then that’s why in the late 1880s you get the cycle boom.”

At this point, Coventry’s medieval streets were used to test out the latest bicycle inventions by one of the hundreds of companies based in the city.

It was not long until they were bringing combustion engines into their designs and this left the city well placed as a serious player when the automotive industry started to boom in the 20th Century.

By 1950, the car industry had completely taken over from the bicycle industry with 12 manufacturers in the city before the industrial decline began in the 1970s.

A statue of James Starley stands in Greyfriars Green, Coventry to remember his status in the bicycle’s history but Mr Kimberly said he thought some of the others involved in its evolution deserved recognition.

“I don’t think Rowley B. Turner gets any real credit for it, he was the one to introduce this machine to the city,” he said.

“John K Starling, who invented the machine that we still use today, there’s no recognition for him at all in the town.

“There should be a statue, there should be some sort of memorial to him about what we’ve achieved in the past.”