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Information Resources
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
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