Coventry University Archives: News

Chris Clark and the Lanchester Legacy

It is often a cliché to say that something has been a ‘labour of love’, but this is definitely the case for Lanchester car enthusiast and historian Chris Clark’s The Lanchester Legacy publications.

He even persuaded actor Sir David Jason to write a foreword for volume 4 (‘a joyous pictorial journey from 1895 to 1956’), which has just been published to celebrate the 125^th anniversary of the first Lanchester car. 

The 1st Lanchester car in the workshop in 1895.

Sir David agreed to do this, despite being exposed to the elements when taken for a drive in Chris’s spectacular 1926 40 hp Lanchester during filming for the ‘Great British Inventions’ TV series, first broadcast on More 4 in January 2020 (and still available on All 4). You can see photographs of the car on page 88 of volume 4. 

Chris Clark talking to pupils about his 1926 40 hp car during a visit to Whitmore Park Primary School in Coventry.

The car has also been used for promotional work by the Lanchester Interactive Archive (LIA) and during one day in March 2018 it was taken to Whitmore Park Primary School in Coventry for a brief stop on the way to the Classic Car & Restoration Show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

The 1926 40 hp Lanchester car at the National Exhibition Centre.

Chris still has this car but such was his dedication in producing volume 4 he decided to sell another one to raise funds to help write and publish the book (see page 99 for a photo of that car, a 1928 21 hp short-chassis sports tourer).

It is a sumptuous ‘coffee table’ book with many images previously unpublished in large landscape format. Colour tinting has also been used to bring many images to life. The book is split into handy sections with the main one (‘a pictorial journey’) being a history of each Lanchester model with plenty of images of the cars themselves, and other illustrations used for context and background information.

A second section (‘Britain’s own Leonardo da Vinci’) focuses on automobile design and aeronautics, and highlights inventions and ideas that are now considered as standard, but which were ahead of their time when first conceived by Fred. This section also has a ‘trail of discovery’ that looks at other subjects such as:

• potted biographies of Fred and his brothers George and Frank (who were also major figures in the car industry);
• important Lanchester buildings and locations (for work and family);
• scale models (e.g. cars, planes, boats);
• Lanchester material held elsewhere (archives, objects, cars);
• patents and inventions e.g. an outboard boat engine, the pendulum accelerometer, inflatable buildings.

Fred Lanchester's pendulum accelerometer - used for measuring and recording acceleration.

The final section has four appendices, including a world-wide census of surviving Lanchester cars. This shows details on chassis number, engine number, registration number, registration date, coachbuilder, body style, location, and page reference (if a car has been mentioned in one of The Lanchester Legacy volumes). This information shows that there are amazingly 969 cars still surviving (as at December 2020).

One of the appendices shows extracts from a sales directory (July 1931-June 1933) for the London showroom of Stratton-Instone Ltd, Daimler & BSA (Birmingham Small Arms) distributors & sales agents. Entries reveal that a 15/18 hp blue Lanchester saloon was sold to HRH Duke of York (later to become King George VI) in May 1932. And a blue 21 hp Lanchester limousine was sold to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Cosmo Gordon Lang) in May 1933 - which conjures up images of the Archbishop in full regalia driving along with the roof open because he is wearing his mitre, and his crozier is propped up in the front passenger seat.

All The Lanchester Legacy volumes are incredibly useful research tools and are always to hand when wanting to know something about the cars or Fred and the other talented Lanchester family members. The images in the volumes also help with identifying photos and items we hold in our Lanchester archives at Coventry University. More information on all four volumes of The Lanchester Legacy can be found on the Lanchester Legacy website, where it can also be ordered. 

Chris Clark was one of the main drivers (pun intended) in keeping up Fred Lanchester’s profile and ensuring that Lanchester material has been added to the collections held at the university. After starting work as a volunteer in 1983 to help look after Lanchester items he was heavily involved as a consultant in the creation of the LIA in 2017. This was funded by the National Lottery and others and involved the digitisation of items in the Lanchester collection, and the opening of an exhibition space in the university library building (named after Fred Lanchester) - complete with a static 1933 Lanchester display car for visitors to sit in (which was inevitably built by Chris).

Chris Clark working on the 1933 Lanchester display car at Coventry University library.

The university has twice recognised Chris's work with the award of an Honorary Master of Arts degree in 1997 (for services to the automotive industry) and an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree in 2019 (in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the heritage and legacy of Lanchester).

Another car which features in volume 4 is a 1932 15/18 hp limousine (page 284) which now belongs to Coventry University and was purchased in 2019 to help promote the LIA and the university links with the Lanchester cars and the family. It has been condition checked and made roadworthy by the university and volunteers from the Lanchester Trust. It is in the process of being re-purposed as a mobile outreach vehicle to be equipped with projectors, tablets, virtual reality headsets, and copies of documents and objects. So keep an eye out for it in the future!

Coventry University's 1932 Lanchester car outside the university library.

More details on the LIA's work are available on its website, and the archives can be viewed on the Coventry University Archive Catalogue.