%0 Journal Article
%T Adapting to the emergence of the automobile: a case study of Manchester coachbuilder Joseph Cockshoot and Co. 1896–1939
%A Joshua Butt
%D 2018
%V 
%N Autumn 2017
%K automobile
%K carriage
%K coachbuilding
%K Cockshoot
%K Manchester
%K motoring
%X Today motor vehicles are ubiquitous. Yet at the end of the nineteenth century motoring was a new pastime, and there were only a few hundred motorised vehicles on the road. Many believed motoring to be a fad and motorists faced opposition on many fronts, from local corporations, the police and rural residents. Coachbuilders also had an uneasy relationship with this new technology. Automobile manufacturers and customers required coachbuilders’ skills to build motorcar bodies. Yet the growth of the automobile began to affect the use of horse-drawn transport during the first decade of the twentieth century. This paper will analyse the relationship between the horse-drawn and the motorised vehicle in the UK during this transitional period before exploring the records of Manchester coachbuilder Joseph Cockshoot and Co. that survive at the Museum of Science and Industry Archive. This collection offers a rare insight into the dilemmas faced by coachbuilders in this era of transition. This paper argues that the emergence of the automobile was not a simple matter of technological progress, but involved complex relationships between manufacturers, coachbuilders and customers.
%Z The Cockshoot collection, YMS 0197/8/5/9

%Z There has been little research on the UK carriage trade. However, there are studies on other countries including Kinney, 2004, for the USA and Sue-Yen Tjong Tjin Tai, 2015, ‘Building Carriage, Wagon and Motor Vehicle Bodies in the Netherlands: The 1900-40 Transition’, The Journal of Transport History, Vol. 36:2

%Z The exception to this is their analysis of London public transport (Barker and Gerhold, 1993, p 57) and their analysis of freight transport (Barker and Gerhold, 1993, p 61).

%Z Ibid. pp 110–112

%Z Ibid. pp 110–112

%Z Ibid. pp 110–112

%Z YMS 0196/3/6

%Z As noted in YMS 0196/3/6

%Z YMS 196/1/9/25 The Story of a Centenary of Service to Travellers by Road, 1944, unknown author

%Z Norris’s short typed history on the Deansgate ‘Arches’ – YMS 0197/3/3/2

%Z YMS 0197/8/5/9

%Z Catalogue for Wembley exhibition 1924, YMS 0197/6/2

%Z Advert for these first appears in The Autocar, 8 February 1903

%Z YMS 0197/3/3/2 The Manchester Motor Car Corporation was formed in 1899 and was probably the first garage in Manchester, The Autocar, 18 February 1899

%Z YMS 0197/3/3/2

%Z There are numerous small articles on F. Wilkinson and Co. in the early trade journals. For example, The Motor-Car Journal, 15 March 1902, p 33.

%Z In 1901 and 1902 the firm had made seven motorcar bodies – Brooks, R, 1979, Motor Car Coachwork by Cockshoot of Manchester, (Manchester: M. Sc. Dissertation) 09002. Dissertation held at Museum of Science and Industry: YMS 1996/535

%Z YMS 0197/6/3

%Z YMS 0197/3/3/2

%Z YMS 0197/3/3/2 Newspaper cutting from 1903

%Z YMS 196/5/1/1

%Z YMS 0196/5/1/9 – The surviving book of heraldry documented repeated jobs

%Z Forthcoming publication by C Horner on Cheshire vehicle registrations

%Z Ibid
%Z This correspondence was recorded in Brooks, (1979) 08025-08059; it is part of a private collection.

%Z For example, Manchester Courier, 1 August 1903 and The Autocar, 7 February 1903, advertising supplement, p 17

%Z YMS 196/5/2/1/4

%Z Brooks (1979) 09002, graphed the number of bodies produced (data taken from complete records of bodies YMS 0196/5/1/1)

%Z YMS 0196/1/2/5

%Z YMS 0196/1/2/12

%Z YMS 0196/1/2/7

%Z YMS 0196/1/2/12

%I The Science Museum Group
%@ 2054-5770
%B eng
%U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/joseph-cockshoot-and-co/
%J Science Museum Group Journal