Web Page No 2724

 

17^th October 2020

 

1^st Picture: BSM Advert.

2^nd Picture: More modern BSM advert featuring a Triumph Herald

3rd Picture: A post war driving license

4^th Picture: HM Queen driving

 

 

Driving Lessons.

 

Do you remember when you learnt to drive? It seems and age away now but next time you’re cut up by a learner driver or held up as they demonstrate - oh so slowly - how not to reverse into a parking space, try to be patient. They’re only doing what the rest of us had to do to earn our licences marking over a centenary of the first official driving lesson. It was given in 1910 near Peckham by doctor’s son Stanley Roberts. He realised that motoring was going to be big business and set up his own driving school before naming it - rather grandly - the British School of Motoring. Now known simply as BSM, it’s the biggest driving school in Britain.

 

Previously an engineer’s apprentice with Thomas Sopwith (the man who created the Sopwith Camel biplane and the Hawker Hurricane,), Roberts was a motoring fanatic and persuaded his parents to rent out their garage at 65 Peckham Rye to his fledgling business and to house his prized possession, a Dutch-built Spyker. Offering a “Popular Course of Mechanism and Driving”, Roberts’s first pupil was, tellingly, a former coachman, whom he trained to become a chauffeur.

 

Demand for tuition exploded and, as entrepreneurs launched rival driving schools, Roberts boosted his fleet with a Richard-Brazier, a Berliet, two Darracqs and a Milnes Daimler. Business was so brisk that he swiftly expanded, moving to Coventry Street in Piccadilly, later expanding countrywide.

 

Unlike today, when the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) says the average learner needs 52 hours of tuition before they’re ready to take what has become a demanding driving test, Roberts’s early driving courses lasted just four days, placing special emphasis on “correct procedure, discretion and behaviour”. The cost of a lesson then? About 10 /-_(50p) for an hour, compared to about £20-£30 an hour today.

 

Learning to drive in 1910, when cars often resembled horseless carriages, was far harder work physically than today. There was no power steering, making it essential that learners turned the wheel using the laborious “push-pull” method. Starting the engine required a combination of mechanical understanding and brute force (starting handles were the order of the day) and brakes were rod-operated, heavy and ineffective compared to the servo-assisted systems we now take for granted. But what sorted people out was changing gear. Today’s synchromesh is so good it’s hard to fumble a change but then it required skill, timing and the ability to master double-declutching. For those who couldn’t, the best option was to come to a complete halt before first gear could be re-engaged.

 

Traffic at the dawn of the motoring age was light, so learning how to negotiate the roads - which were still dominated by the horse and cart - was easy compared to today. There were only 53,196 cars on British roads then compared to 28.5 million now.

 

Early driving lessons focused on basic car control, elementary hand signals - and common sense. Reassuringly there was no such thing as a government-administered driving test; that didn’t come for another quarter of a century. Drivers simply applied for a licence and if they could prove they had undergone instruction it was issued automatically, this is how my father got his license!

 

It was the introduction of the 25-minute L-test in 1935 - five years after the 30mph speed limit was introduced for urban areas - that gave driving schools the boost they’d longed for. It included an eye test, Highway Code questions, an emergency stop, arm signals, reversing, turning in the road and “general driving”.

 

In the first year, 154,636 tests were conducted, compared to more than a million practical L-tests and 1.3 million theory tests taken each year now. The pass rate was 63 per cent, falling to 50 per cent in 1950 and 43 per cent today.

 

The first person to pass the test in 1935 was a Mr Beene, of Kensington, earning Pass Certificate 000001 following a course of BSM lessons. Those who followed in his footsteps with BSM in years to come included the Queen. Today, the test has changed beyond recognition.

 

Stanley Roberts - who died in 1957 - would be astonished at how his concept has grown; there are now about 46,600 approved driving instructors in Britain. He’d be more astonished still at advances in vehicle technology that make operating a car almost fool proof and arm signals - finally dropped from the L-test in 1975 - laughable. He’d be shocked by the current cost of the driving test. When it was introduced in 1935, Mr Beene’s examination cost 7/6d (37.5p). Today it’s £62 for a weekday practical test or £75 at weekends and £31 for the theory test, which was introduced in 1996.

 

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Peter

 

gsseditor@gmail.com

 

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On this day 17^th  October 1960 – 1965

 

 

On 17/10/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was US places embargo on goods to Cuba.

 

On 17/10/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 17/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 17/10/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 17/10/1964 the number one single was Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 17/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.