PAST IMPERFECT:The facts have not gotten in the way of a good story about early motoring, writes BOB MONTGOMERY
ONE OF the most persistent myths surrounding early motoring is the “red flag” myth. It is still widely believed that the annual London-Brighton Run commemorates the change in the law which freed motorists in Britain and Ireland from the necessity of having their vehicle preceded by a man walking ahead of it with a red flag.
As long ago as 1957, motoring writer St John Nixon was cheerfully exploding the myth – and was, in fact, preceded in doing so by the author W Worby Beaumont, who chronicled the early years of motoring.
The requirement began with the Locomotives Act of 1865 which stated: “One of such persons, while any locomotive is in motion, shall precede such locomotive on foot by not less than sixty yards, and shall carry a red flag constantly to warn the riders and drivers of horses of the approach of such locomotives and shall signal the approach thereof when it shall be necessary to stop, and shall assist horses and carriages drawn by horses, passing the same.”
This piece of legislation was, of course, designed for the traction engines which then travelled our roads before the arrival of the motor car. However, in 1878, an amendment to this Act came into force. The relevant section stated: “Secondly, one of such persons shall precede by a least 20 yards the locomotive on foot, and shall in case of need assist horses and carriages drawn by horses passing the same.”
Clearly, in 1878, the necessity for carrying a red flag was removed and, instead of having to walk 60 yards in front, the man preceding the locomotive had only to walk 20 yards in front.
What happened in 1896, and which is commemorated each year in the famous London-Brighton Run, was the introduction of the Locomotives on Highways Act.
This piece of legislation went further, by abolishing the necessity for a pedestrian preceding the motor car and, at the same time, allowed cars to travel at a speed of 14mph, although this was reduced to 12mph by the local government board. In Ireland, however, the local government board, under Sir Henry Robinson, himself a keen motorist, maintained the higher limit of 14mph.
Quite why this fallacy about the red flag should have persisted for so long is not clear, except that it perhaps adds a bit of colour to the tale.
W Worby Beaumont, in his monumental work Motor Vehicles and Motors, first published in 1900, writing of the 1878 Act, was quite clear that: “The 1878 Act introduced a large number of technical points, such as the dimensions of wheels, forms of their surface, and the weight of locomotives: and the famous red flag was repealed, and the attendant, shorn of his badge of office, was allowed to precede the locomotive on foot by only 20 yards instead of 60 yards.”
Perhaps, as so often happens, it was a case of not allowing the lowly facts to get in the way of a good story.