Mr Onesiphorus Oliver Collett and the ‘Bampton Voiturette’
by Graham Newman
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A Bampton Archive Publication
Please visit www.bamptonarchive.org to view the extensive list of archive video and audio recordings, publications and exhibition catalogues. The website also features a large searchable archive of documents, photographs and artefacts relating to Bampton going back thousands of years. August 2019
Grant aided by WODC
The author acknowledges the respective copyright owners for the images and photographs used.
BCA-52/A August 2019
Mr Onesiphorus Oliver Collett and the ‘Bampton Voiturette’ By Graham Newman
FIRST THERE WAS HORSEPOWER The Entrepreneurial Onesiphorus Oliver Collett of Bampton This is the story of a man very much of his time who was born in Clanfield in 1870 and one year later moved to Bampton, where he lived and worked for his whole life until hi death in 1934. His given first name of Onesiphorus, although ancient and biblical , summarizes his life in the very meaning of his name: Onesiphorus - “bringing advantage and beneficial”. What transpired in the development of Victorian life in England from the year of his birth in 1870 to when he started his business in 1888 were all the elements that contributed to his impressively rapid successes. In 1873 the railway was in Bampton. The telegraph service had started in 1870, the postal service was swift and comprehensive, postmen all had bicycles by 1880, newspapers arrived daily, it was possible to send a letter in the morning from Bampton to London and get a reply the same day. It didn’t stop there, by 1911 Bampton had a telephone office. He was clearly a very clever young man who saw the commercial opportunities the burgeoning late Victorian period had to offer and brought them to Bampton by way of his engineering skills and energy.
Delivery Van c. 1920
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To fully understand what he achieved, this illustrated story shows the time and the environment in which he grew up, hopefully highlighting the relevancy of his remarkable achievements. Following the history from ‘Horse Power’ to ‘Steam Power’ and ‘Railways’, then to ‘Bicycles’ leading to the fascinating account of Mr Collett’s life and work in Bampton, you see the linked relevance of what he saw around him in his young life that inspired him to start his Watchmaker shop in 1888 at the age of just 18.
All the photographs in the book were taken in Bampton. Many of the originals are over 100 years old.
Albert Townsend in his pony and trap
Elephant and Castle c. 1930
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Hay Cart
Horace Morse collecting lavatory buckets (before Mains Sewage built in the mid 1950’s) Marjorie Pollard was an important supportive part of village life. She was a great philanthropist and was the person Bampton folk turned to if they needed help. She had threatened to drive the sewage cart to the Houses of Parliament in London to protest about the fact that Bampton did not have main drainage, even as late as the mid-fifties. 7
For centuries horses were the main motive force of transport and machinery. In the mid 1700’s the first signs of new technologies appeared. It was to take another 160 years until the horse was finally displaced as working motive power, a long time in human timescales, but the blink of an eye in the history of the world. Around the turn of the 1900’s there were about 7 million horses in Britain. That was a lot of farmland being used to keep and feed a transport system (and a lot of methane!) Something had to change. A rapidly growing population had to be fed, housed and employed. The ingenuity of creative minds had already designed and built the new technologies. It was the young and energetic Victorians who developed the manufacturing processes that meant by the 1890’s we had bicycles, trains, steam traction, motorcars, motorcycles and very shortly afterwards aeroplanes. The era of horse power would come to a swift end... after it had helped contribute to building the new transport systems of the 20th Century.
Traffic-free Market Square
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Julia Daniels and family outside their saddlery c. 1880
Pony and trap outside The Malt Shovel, Lavender Square
The Black Maria on Bridge Street 9
The Horse Fair Bampton was given a Royal Grant by Henry III in the 13th Century for a weekly market and an annual Fair traditionally held on 25th and 26th August. At the beginning of the 1900’s the Fair was nationally famous, drawing buyers from London and Liverpool. For several days before the Fair, horses would arrive by road and rail, and local farmers were said to have charged sixpence a night for horses to ‘lodge’ in their fields. There could be anything up to 200 horses. By 1910 the effect of steam and motor power resulted in the rapid decline in demand for carthorses, cobs, donkeys and mules so that by 1930, the Horse Fair dwindled to nothing as motor vehicles took over in all areas of transport and agriculture. A carriage or ‘bus’ drawn by two horses ran from Mill Bridge to the railway station for a fare of sixpence. Any body who lived on the route and needed to use the bus would hang a piece of coloured material in the window. A current local resident can remember this service still running in the mid 1920’s by which time it was Mr. Harwood who ran the bus.
Bampton Horse Fair at Church Green c.1910
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Horse Fair outside the Horseshoe c.1904
Traffic-free Bampton c.1900 11
THEN CAME STEAM AND THE RAILWAY The Railway On the 15th January 1873, three years after the birth of Onesiphorus Oliver Collett, the East Gloucestershire Railway started running four trains a day from Witney to Fairford which stopped at Bampton station. The effect on the small isolated town of Bampton was profound. Bampton was now within 35 minutes of Oxford. Bampton to Paddington took 2 hours. A day out in London, Weston Super Mare, Southsea and exotic Brighton were within nearly everybody’s grasp both in terms of time and affordability. Building materials, engineering supplies, heavy machinery, utility supplies and luxury goods were now accessible, quickly and cheaply. Just take a look around at the houses and architecture of Bampton for an indication of the economic and social change that occurred as a new wealthy ‘middle class’ built substantial new houses, terraces of brick built ‘villas’ and opened new shops and businesses. Everyone’s standard of life leapt forward. It was the beginning of a swift change that moved Bampton from total agricultural dependency to the opportunity of working in Witney, Oxford and for some, even London. Bampton now had a ‘window’ on a world very different from only a few years before. The railway existed for just 87 years. It was closed in 1962. It changed the concept of time. Railways ran to a strict timetable and if you wanted to successfully interface with it you need to know the precise time, and for that you need a watch… an opportunity not missed by young Onesiphorus Oliver Collett.
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The last train to Bampton in 1962
With the outline of Lew Hill in the background, 57xx 0-6-0 PT 9653 arrives at Brize Norton and Bampton station with the 18:17 Oxford to Fairford train on 16 June 1962, the final day of passenger services. Originally named Bampton, the construction of nearby RAF Brize Norton just before the Second World War led to the station being renamed Brize Norton and Bampton. The 3ž miles between Witney and Bampton stations was the longest distance between stations on the line. Judging by the bright ballast visible in the background, either the track work was exceedingly well maintained, or as often happened when branch lines were due to close, the track was reballasted!
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An interesting view of Bampton station (as it was known then) from the road bridge, sometime before the late 1930s. It is immediately obvious that this view pre-dates the construction of RAF Brize Norton, as the airfield came right up to the railway boundary (see picture on page 17), and the two Elm trees that dominate this view, as well as the hedge in the background would have been swept away around 1937. This picture is reproduced from a postcard that was posted in 1948 - hardly an up to date view at the time!
At the turn of the last century, around 1902, motor fuel (petrol) was supplied in squared off oblong cans packed in wooden crates and delivered by railway across the country. This supply chain was a major factor in the development of Mr Oliver Onesiphorus Collet’s motorized vehicle business. 14
A bus drawn by two horses ran from Mill Bridge to Bampton railway station for a fare of sixpence (now 2.5p!!). Anybody who lived on the route and needed to use the bus would hang a piece of coloured material in their window. What is interesting is that a current Bampton resident can remember this omnibus still running in the mid 1920’s, although by then it was owned by a Mr Harwood. The carriage was kept in Townsend’s yard (now Castle View) opposite what was The Elephant.
Brize Norton and Bampton station in 1937 15
W. Payne & Son ran an omnibus and cartage service from Bampton station to Bampton
Advertisement for W. Payne & Son’s carrier services
Bampton migrants leaving for Canada in 1913 16
Bampton Sunday school outing in 1932
Brize Norton and Bampton station looking west post WW II with Brize Norton airfield on the right where there had been trees and fields 17
Train arriving from Fairford
The cycle shed at Brize Norton and Bampton looked suspiciously like an old railway van body. It was situated at the east end of the station building, and is seen here on 5th March 1978. Of course, during the heyday of the branch line, proper storage for cycles was more important than car park provision. A little known fact was that children who passed the 11+ exam and gained a place at Witney Grammar School were provided with very fine Phillips bicycles so that they could cycle from Bampton to the station. One of the last local residents to enjoy this privilege is Mrs. Janet Newman. 18
Sadly near the last days of the railway. For those of you who wonder where the station was in Bampton – it was along Station Road, past the right turn to Lew and Witney and further up on the left before the bridge where there is now a light industrial estate.
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THEN THERE WAS STEAM POWER Steam Traction The sheer power of the steam engine was critical in building the roads that horse drawn vehicles and the soon to arrive motor vehicles needed. They were also used in tandem either side of fields for drawing large ploughs across fields much faster than could be achieved with using heavy horses. For some time, from the 1860’s to the 1930’s steam engines were the motive power for moving very heavy goods and remained in use until their power was matched by the much lighter but equally powerful and easier and cheaper to run diesel engine. They still have a magical attraction way beyond their usefulness, rather like the heavy horses they replaced.
Oxford Steam Ploughing Company – two engines like this were used either side of a field and hauled the heavy cable ploughs which were much bigger than horses could pull.
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This engine, hauling a load of rocks to be crushed for road building, was driven by Mr. Bishop, Tom Papworth’s grandfather, standing on the right
The awesome power of the steam engine was used to power threshing machines, saws, conveyors, cranes, huge rock crushing hammers, not just pulling things about.
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Heavy road haulage tractor looking as it did in its heyday
Steam plough engine. On the right hand side you can see the drive gears which drive the capstan mounted under the engine itself.
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Steam engine ‘Pandora'
Then in the 1880's, the goods trains brought bicycles. And there will always be... 23
THE BICYCLE The idea of a two-wheeled riding machine had been around in various guises, from the ‘Hobby Horse’ of the late 1700’s to the ‘nearly there’ of the Penny Farthing of the mid 1800’s. The breakthrough was the ‘safety bicycle’ of the 1880’s, an elegant engineering concept. Simple, safe, efficient and affordable to a large section of the population, the bicycle was (and still is) a classless mode of easy and effective personal transport. The bicycle is the most efficient form of converting energy to movement. Its future is assured. The bicycle business at the end of the 19th century was clearly a boom industry and within a few years there wasn’t a car or motorcycle manufacturer whose enterprise had not started by building bicycles. Bampton also reflected that pattern. Happily for us now, on a somewhat smaller scale!
The development of the bicycle
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Onesiphorus Oliver Collett on his unique and self-designed and built bicycle. If you look closely, above the handlebars are a drive cog and a chain running down to a drive cog on the front wheel. This drive cog was activated by short cranks connected to the handlebar. By pumping these cranks up and down power was delivered to the front wheel. Onesiphorus had damaged his left leg as a boy when he fell from a tree and got his leg trapped. He could not bend his leg very well, as you will notice in this and other photographs, which meant he could not easily ride a conventional bicycle. 25
The development of the bicycle
Ethel Collett on a tricycle built by her father, Onesiphorus Oliver Collett. 26
Percy Hughes’ butcher’s business moved to Cheapside, opposite Mr Collett’s establishment, following a fire which destroyed his former premises in the High Street next to the Horse Shoe. The little lad with the tricycle is Percy’s son Leonard and the young man with the bicycle is Syd White. Many years later, it was Leonard Hughes who bought Collett’s Garage from Oliver Collett’s son, Christopher, in the early 1950’s.
Albert ‘Son’ Townsend – son of the Mr Albert Townsend who had the Bampton horse bus.
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Emmie Papworth
Ethel Townsend
In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s the local lads competed in bicycle speedway racing in Bampton. The track was at the top of New Road where there is now the fire station and Pembroke Place. Such was the following that coaches bought in spectators and the racers were local heroes! One of these heroes was Ronnie Amos, who now lives in Aston. 28
MR. ONESIPHORUS OLIVER COLLETT The Watchmaker By the time Onesiphorus Collet was a young man, the very rapid development of massproduced precision engineering in Britain was at full swing. Being able to produce fine watch parts in large quantities and perfect precision, meant component costs had fallen dramatically, and a pocket watch was conceivably within the purchasing power of higher paid working men. Not only that, but the railways ran to perfect time. You had to be on the platform the exact time the train was there. If you were paid by the hour, you did not want to be told the time by the works bell or hooter because, a few minutes here or there, added up to a few hours every month! The watch became a must have item for anyone who had to interface with the rest of the world, just like our iPad or Smartphone. In just the same way, ownership carried status. Being a watchmaker and retailer was a very good way to make a living in a town like Bampton as was supplying the booming bicycle craze. Onesiphorus Oliver Collett was going to be very successful.
In this picture, taken around mid 1920’s, there are two interesting developments. Firstly, the Petrol Pump, which was only possible because of road tankerage, and secondly the notice in the left hand shop window which says “Wireless Sets Repaired”. The photo was therefore taken sometime after 1922 when the BBC began radio 29 broadcasts.
In this picture, Mr Collett is astride a motorcycle, perhaps his own design and build. The quadricycle with the two ladies aboard was probably the first of the two cars Mr Collect is reported to have built. This concept of car design preceded the “Voiturette� that Mr Collett built in 1901 - 1902.
Mr Hughes developed the garage business and a coach service, whilst Mrs Hughes ran a wool business in the retail shop premises.
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Mr. Collett’s Premises During the latter part of the 19th century, William Angel Smith owned several houses in Bampton, including the shop in Cheapside, now known as Exeter House, which he let to Mr O. O. Collett in 1888 when he was 18 years old. Onesiphorus Collett started his watchmaking and jewellery business. Mr. Collett ditched the burden of his somewhat unusual first name and became known as Oliver, his second birth name. The business was an immediate success and Oliver was able, within a period of months, to extend his engineering ingenuity by building bicycles and tricycles, including his brilliant design for a dual powered bicycle to offset his own slight disability.
In 1888 at the age of 18, Onesiphorus Collett rented this property in Cheapside and started his watchmaking and jewellery business. Clearly, it was very successful because very shortly after, he built a motorcycle to which he later added a sidecar. By 1900, the watchmaking and jewellery took second place to bicycle and motorcycle building and repair work and he enlarged the premises by taking over the lease of the adjoining Cromwell House. Between 1901 and 1902 he built a small car which he named the ‘Bampton Voiturette’. This was a ‘light’ motorcar. The engine in front of the radiator was a typical French/ Belgian design and a construction design favoured by Renault. Looking at the vehicle, it is easy to see the skills progression from building bicycles, tricycles and motorcycles to the Voiturette. 31
Mr Collett with his wife and daughter in the car, which is being admired by Mr Roland Taunt. By comparison with contemporary motor cars, Mr Collett’s vehicle was of a more advanced design with its fine lightweight wheels, handlebar steering and twin carriage lights. It also had a ‘behind the engine’ radiator mounted above the front mounted engine cowling, giving the added advantage of providing warm air over the occupants. The engine was probably a De Dion Bouton from France or a Minerva from Belgium. These two companies were early in the field as exporters of proprietary engines, ranging from small capacity engines for motorcycles and light cars, to larger motors for bigger cars.
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Sometime after 1902, Mr Collett added a further shop window beside the front door. His daughter, Ethel now two or three years older is still riding the tricycle Oliver built for her and he is still riding his motorcycle.
At this time, there were many budding British car manufacturers that did not have the resources or facilities (which would have been the case in Bampton) to make their own engines. Mr Collett was very early into the market; some six to seven years before William Morris in Oxford and a Mr Henry Royce in Manchester! However, regarded by many at the time as ‘rich men’s play things’ and a total folly, motor cars were, by any measure, expensive. The recession of 1907 and the fact that Mr Collett did not meet some extremely rich gentlemen to invest in the venture as did William Morris and Mr Royce, meant that Mr Collett focused on the business of maintaining vehicles, fuelling and servicing them in his workshop facilities behind the shop. He secured franchise distribution of Palmer Cord Tyres as well as Pratt’s Perfection Spirit and Gargoyle Mobiloil, both of which became Standard Oil (Esso) in later years.
The car Oliver built was dismantled a few years later and the engine was used to run an electric generator which, for very many years after, provided electric lighting for his house (the only house in Bampton to have such luxury!). It was also used to charge lead-acid batteries that powered the newfangled ‘wireless’ radios which Mr Collett later sold to the people of Bampton as well as providing a wireless repair service.
Oliver Collett’s Certificate of Approval as an Official Authorised Repairer for the The Cyclists Touring Club. A prestigious endorsement of his prowess in the world of bicycles. 33
In 1914 war broke out. Onesiphorus Collett was 44, beyond conscription age, and in any event his damaged left leg would have excluded him from military service. However, he was intent on making a contribution to the war effort and once again his creative genius brought a degree of comfort to the frontline-serving troops and doubtlessly saved many lives. The soldiers used a candle in a cocoa tin to heat up food and brew tea. A simple expedient, but not the most efficient way of doing things. In addition, the glow of light could have given away their position and drawn the fire from the everpresent snipers and spotters of the enemy. Mr Collett started making a modified Cocoa Tin Heater which greatly increased the thermal efficiency while at the same time emitted no light. Sadly, no example of his Bampton made Cocoa Tin Heater has been found but returning troops reported back their grateful thanks for the safety and reliable performance of The Collett Cocoa Tin Heater.
Newspaper article on the Collett Cocoa Tin Heater of 1916, described by his daughter Ethel.
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At about the same time he and his younger sister Susannah also made and sold Collett’s Salve for the relief of sores and chilblains.
After the Great War, Mr Collett’s business, which was increasingly centred on garage service and repair, also now included radio repairs, continued to prosper. In 1922, Mr Collett was able to buy the freehold of the entire properties of which he had been the lease holder, which covered the original shop premises, Cromwell House and the adjoining blacksmiths premises. At the same time, Collett’s Garage had added petrol pump fuel filling which was only possible because of road tanker deliveries. Mr Collett died in March 1934 aged 64, and his wife Mary Emma died in June the same year. They lie together in Bampton Cemetery. All of his working life he was known as ‘Oliver Collett’, which is the name carved on his gravestone. However on close inspection it can be seen that an ‘O’ was added some time later, before ‘Oliver Collett’, to mark his full name – Onesiphorus Oliver Collett. His daughter married and left Bampton, whilst his son, Christopher, continued the business until after WW II, when the business was bought by Mr Leonard Hughes. Mr Hughes developed the garage business and a coach service, whilst Mrs Hughes ran a wool business in the retail shop premises. Later, when the Hughes’ coach business finished, the family started a taxi service. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Mr and Mrs Hughes still live in Bampton today.
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Work in progress inside the workshop
Oliver Collett’s premises, now known as Exeter House, in Cheapside.
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Oliver Collett and his wife Mary in 1932
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Mr and Mrs Collett’s gravestone in Bampton cemetery
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