The photograph above shows an early car outside the off licence in Alfred Street. There is a uniformed chauffeur in the driving seat.
At Rushden Museum we have a good collection of artefacts and documents relating to motoring. The earliest we have is a Driving Licence for Joseph Knight dated 19 August 1916 and another for 24 January 1917. They cost £3 3s. 0d. and were for one car not exceeding 12 horse power.
Joseph Knight lived at “Rosemount,” in Irchester Road, Rushden, and was a boot and shoe manufacturer. At that time he had a factory in York Road, built on the site of one destroyed by fire in 1907. Joseph died in May 1932 at the age of 76 years.
2 Driving Licences belonging to Joseph Knight
The factory in York Road – now converted into flats.
This photograph was taken in 2010.
We also have a Provisional Licence for Mrs. Nora Fanny Claridge dated 1 October 1946 to 30 September, 1947 which cost 5 shillings, and a Provisional Licence dated 27 August 1957 to 26 November, 1957for Mrs. Audrew Truett (nee Waller) who lived in Oakley Road.
Provisional Licence for Mrs. Nora Fanny Claridge
Provisional Licence for Mrs. Audrey Truett
A set of AA books in a box are dated 1938-9 and 1939-40. These books belonged to Mr. R. H. Weston who lived in Wellingborough Road, Rushden. He joined the AA in January 1939 and was given a membership card and a key to open the AA telephone boxes all over the country.
The entry for the Queen Victoria Hotel in Rushden
The entry for Wargate Motors, Ltd., Wellingborough Road, Rushden
The Queen Victoria Hotel
An invoice from Wargate Motors, Ltd., dated September 1939
We have various Motor Fuel Ration Coupons, some dated 1947 following the end of WWII
Motor Fuel Ration Coupons dated 1947.
The top coupons are for vehicle NV 6049
These coupons are dated 1957 and those on the left were sent to Florence Simpson, 22 High Street South Rushden. This rationing was caused by the Suez Canal crisis.
22 High Street South, Rushden
All members of the AA had a badge on their cars and any passing AA patrol men, usually on motor cycles, had to salute the driver. The route map below has the message on the front: When a Patrol does not Salute, Members should, in their own interests, Stop to Ask the Reason.
The Route Map is from Rushden to Bridgnorth and gives the distance as 93¾ miles.
We don’t have an AA car badge but we have a Rushden Query Motor Club badge and a Scout badge. The Rushden Query Motor Club was formed in 1931 when petrol was 1/- to 1/6 per gallon. (5 pence to 7½ pence).
The ‘Safe Driving’ badges, pictured below, were presented to Mr. William Brown, who was for thirty-five years chauffeur and commercial van driver for the Rushden Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd., boot and shoe works. Mr. Brown lived in Purvis Road and retired at the age of 65, when he was presented with a gold watch from friends in the factory. Over the years he had driven more than 300,000 miles and for his clean driving record he had received three medals in silver and gold, with 17 bars to them. These were awarded by the Safe Driving Competition Association between 1936 and 1954.
To go with all this motoring about you would need a road map and a Motorists’ Manual. The manual comes with the compliments of Johnsons Motors, Washbrook Road, Rushden.
