Beeston

British Motor Syndicate promoter Henry John Lawson acquired the financially troubled Quinton Cycle Company in 1896 and reorganized its Coventry Parkside works as the New Beeston Cycle Company, with former Quinton proprietor Samuel Gorton managing production. Lawson's De Dion engine licence enabled Beeston to build one of Britain's earliest practical motor tricycles; a New Beeston machine was advertised as the only British-built participant in the pioneering 1896 London-to-Brighton Emancipation Run, although surviving official entry lists make that attribution uncertain. After the first company liquidated in 1897, Beeston Motor Company continued powered vehicles from 1898, adding a lower-frame tricycle, a four-wheel passenger quadricycle and, in 1899, a 3½ hp light car. Beeston Motor entered liquidation in 1900, while the successor Beeston Cycle Company continued motorcycles until 1910. The marque is unrelated to Humber's Nottinghamshire Beeston factory: Beeston Humber describes Humber products or location, not additional Beeston models. The catalog therefore retains the three automobile-class Beeston lineages and does not duplicate later motorcycles or Humber cars.

Text adapted from “Beeston” on Wikipedia ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗