Sawyers Velocipede
Notes on Sawyers Velocipede
Manufactory, Dover and Deal.
(Willard Sawyer 1808 - 1892)
By Mark Frost, Dover Museum
Willard Sawyer, velocipede
manufacturer, is a figure of national importance in the history of
cycling and has been called 'the first truly professional maker of
man-powered vehicles' .
The Sawyer family were not local.
John, the eldest sibling, was born in Maidstone in 1801, his two
sisters were born in New Romney in 1803 and 1805, and Willard was
born in Romney in 1808. The 1823 Pigots Directory lists Thomas
Sawyer, carpenter, at New Romney. The family moved to Dover when
Willard was still a boy but, despite being the youngest, he became
head of the household after his father's death.
The 1841 census lists Willard, a
carpenter, as head of the household in Chapel Street, Dover, aged
30, living with his brother John, aged 40, and sister Sarah, 38,
Thomas, 10 (Willard's nephew born out of wedlock to Sarah), and
Jane, 65 (probably Willards fathers sister). By the 1851 census the
family had moved to St. James St. and had been joined by their
mother Sarah, 78, and Elizabeth, 38 (listed as Willard's sister but
in fact his wife). Willard (43), John (50) and Thomas (20) are all
listed as carpenters. By the 1861 census Willard and Elizabeth had
3 children - Willard (1851), William (1853) and Elias (1855) though
Elizabeth herself had by then died as had Willard's mother Sarah.
The family had been joined by the second sister, Mary (56), a
staymaker. Willard is listed as a velocipede manufacturer and John
as a carpenter.
As a carpenter, Sawyer was probably
making wooden hobby-horses for customers, as did other carpenters
and blacksmiths of the period. He was obviously inspired to make
improvements on man-powered machines and seems to have been making
4-wheeled velocipedes before 1840 and had moved to his new
'factory' at 20 St. James St. not long after 1841. This was a
workshop and accommodation on the corner with Fector's Place
(Russell St.).
Sawyer's early machines were as
impractical vehicles as other velocipedes, still then largely
experimental and usually made as one-offs or to order as a
side-line of blacksmiths, iron-founders, carriage builders, and
carpenters. Sawyer initially used long foot treadles attached to a
rear crank-axle to drive his machine, with a tiller on the front
axle to steer - this severely limited steering as the wheels would
hit the riders legs (The massive throw of the crank-axle, like two
steep V's, one inverted, are a characteristic of a Sawyer machine).
Sawyer later switched the crank axle to the front wheels and used a
rope-and-pulley system to steer the rear wheels which made his
velocipedes much more practical and hence much more saleable.
Additionally he was soon making his machines entirely from steel
bar and strap with only the wheels in wood, making his machines
strong, fast and lightweight, yet, by mass-manufacturing, they were
also cheap. Sawyers St. James St. factory was probably the worlds
first mass-production cycle factory (it is labelled 'Velocipede
Manufactory' on the 1858/60 O.S. map) and he was certainly the
first to market his product nationally and establish a
brand-name.
Sawyer made a variety of models, from
a 6-seater family machine to a lightweight racer. His Promenade and
Visiting model ' preserves evening costume' and he also made
Lady's, Invalid's and Children's models. After he exhibited at the
Great Exhibition of 1851 and the American Exhibition of 1854,
orders came from all over the world and he built machines for the
Emperor of Russia, the Prince Imperial of France, the Crown Prince
of Hanover and numerous other members of the aristocracy. Even the
Prince of Wales visited the Dover factory in 1857 to take
possession of his own machine. Sawyer advertised as the ' original
inventor and Registered improver' and referred to his machines as '
double-action self-locomotives' .
Sawyer had few competitors and
compared to other velocipedes his machines were far superior in
technology and superbly engineered. His ' best bright iron work
velocipede, capped and bound with silver' cost between £25 and £40.
Japanned versions were £15 to £25. In addition he also sold
second-hand and 'trade-in' models and hired machines out by the
hour or day. He also supplied the Crystal Palace with hire machines
so visitors could promenade the Gardens.
The virtues of the Sawyer velocipede
were extolled by many, including J.C. Skeffington who rode his
machine home from Dover to Brighton in 1858 and then toured
southern England, covering 526 miles in 20 days. All riders
exclaimed the Sawyer velocipedes' ease in climbing hills.
Sawyer was at his height in the 1850's
and early 1860's but by then the two-wheeled 'boneshaker' was
becoming increasingly popular. With the arrival of the Ordinary
('penny-farthing') his market disappeared and the Dover factory
closed in about 1868, the year Sawyer disappears from the Register
of Electors. The premises had been leased from Dover Corporation
and, although the lease expired in 1872, Sawyer had been trying to
cancel it or sell it since 1856.
On August 5th that year he
asked the Town Council to cancel his lease:-
' his living depended on the hire
and sale of velocipedes; but since a decision of the
{Magistrates} Bench had declared them a nuisance, he was
unable to obtain a livelihood, and wished to move to some locality
where they were not regarded as nuisances' . (The Dover
Telegraph 9/8/1856)
Sawyer and his family moved to Deal
and a small workshop at 8 St. George's Place (now St. George's
Road) where he continued to make wooden velocipedes while his son
William traded as a photographer from upstairs. It is not known why
Sawyer chose Deal though the coast and hinterland there is
completely flat - presumably as a very flat, popular holiday resort
Sawyer thought that Deal would at least still provide a market for
'promenading' in hire vehicles (modern 4-wheeled velocipedes are
still hired out in many resort towns, particularly on the
Continent).
The Deal workshop closed in 1887 and
Sawyers stock-in-trade was auctioned on 29 March 1887. The lots
included 50 velocipedes, steamboat models, a turning lathe and
carpenters tools. The sale also included his son's photographic
darkroom on wheels. This would have been used for the outmoded wet
collodion process and William must have modernised for he continued
his photography business from 83 Dover Road, Lower Walmer, until
about the time of First World War.
Sawyer retired to his son's house in
Walmer where he died in 1892. He was buried at St. Mary's Church,
Walmer, on the 13th February, aged 84. He is buried with his
daughter Eliza who died unmarried at the same house in 1923, aged
69.
Sawyer's original workshop in Chapel
Street now lies under the York Street dual carriageway. The factory
on the corner of St. James St. and Fector's Place is now under the
middle of the widened, southern half of Russell Street, between the
bus garage and the car park. The Deal workshop has largely survived
and is now the home of the Deal Maritime and Local History
Museum.Text : © Dover Museum