1898 - First Car Sighted on Earlston High Street

Reader Dr. John Burns  came  across this  snippet on Earlston life in  “The Southern Reporter” of 24th March 1898.

"MOTOR CAR - A motor car passed through the village on Sunday morning.  The two gentlemen who were driving it left Newcastle-on-Tyne the previous day en route for Edinburgh. In this neighbourhood one of the tyres got damaged  and it was resolved to put up at the Red Lion. 

This was done and the  car when it reached the hotel, being stopped for a little while was quickly surrounded  and examined with no small degree of curiosity, this being the first time  such a machine  has been seen  in operation here. "

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This little  news item is complemented by advertisements from the  "AA Illustrated Motoring Annual and Motorist Year Book. 1904", held by reader Cynthia Sinclair whose grandfather had a car hire business in Edinburgh.  

 

 

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More motor car photographs from the Auld Earlston Collection 

 

Ten years on from this the first sighting of a car in the village,  this is the official car used by Prime Minister Asquith when he visited Earlston in 1908.

 

 A vintage  car on Thorn Street at the west end of the village, c.1920's.

 

The Quiet Market Square, c.1920's

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