Forncett’s first cars

Today nearly every household in Forncett has a car but there was a time when there were no cars in the parish. Although petrol-driven motor cars began to appear on English roads in the late 1890s, it was almost certainly many years later that anyone in Forncett owned a car. The first mass-produced car in the U.K. was Henry Ford's "Model T" which was launched in the USA in 1908. In 1911 Ford began manufacturing these cars in Manchester and just two years later, in 1913, Lemon Keeler, the landlord of the Safety Valve pub at Forncett station, was running a taxi service using a Model T. (Lemon's unusual Christian name came from his mother whose maiden name was Anna Lemon.)

Lemon Keeler (left) outside the Safety Valve with two Model Ts – date unknown.

Lemon gave up his role as landlord of the Safety Valve in 1913 but continued to hire out cars and pony traps from his house next door to the station until at least 1933.

Lemon was not the only owner of a Model T Ford in Forncett. Another was owned by the redoubtable Marjorie Thurston who lived at Church Farm on Low Road. 

Marjorie with her Model T at Church Farm

Marjorie had a fascination with motor bikes and motor cars, a passion she probably acquired from her boyfriend Richard (Dickie) Sutton who was a motor engineer. She was also a keen photographer, and she left numerous photos of the bikes and cars which she and Dickie drove. (This may be the topic of another History Note sometime in the future).

By the 1930s cars were becoming slightly more frequent on Forncett's roads but in his childhood reminiscences, Keith Parker, (who was born in 1925 and lived at Hill House in Cheney's Lane) recalled just one, the "magnificent saloon of Marjorie Thurston".

By the 1930s Marjorie's father, John Thurston, had retired and her mother was an invalid. So, Marjorie was running the farm, but it was nevertheless around that time that she also became Forncett's unofficial taxi service. Few women drove cars at this time, so with her Morris Cowley Six saloon she made a striking image and was known to all the village.

Marjorie outside Church Farm in the mid 1930s.

I believe that Marjorie continued to run her taxi well into the 1940s but if any readers can shed more light on this I'd be keen to hear from them.

With thanks to Debbie Sutton for the photos of Marjorie Thurston.