The classic Calcott: rediscovering an overlooked Light Car

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Calcott was one of so many fledgling marques to have embarked upon car production in Coventry in the early 20th century, and like many of its compeers, it vanished almost unnoticed in the 1920s, leaving its name to be carried forward only by a few dedicated light-car enthusiasts.

The firm’s story was typical: it built pleasant, reliable cars and took pride in making its own engines, but it was neither financially acute nor adaptable. It was established in 1886 with workshops on Far Gosford Street, responding firstly to the roller-skating craze and then expanding to meet the steady demand for bicycles, but the Calcott brothers were slow to cotton on to motorisation; they did not build motorcycles until 1904, and only expanded into car production in 1913.

Demand for cars brought a sudden flow of cash into the formerly hand-to-mouth company, and in the early ’20s it fielded a modest range including 10.15, 10.5, 11.9 and 13.9hp models with a range of bodies. If only James Calcott Sr had had more sense with money… His shareholders received generous 40 per cent dividends, but he invested little in improving the dated factory and inefficient production methods, and company finances became increasingly precarious until, at last, it entered insolvency in 1926.

More’s the pity, for the little Calcotts were decent machines, if this scruffy 1923 10.5hp is anything to go by. Peter Card pays tribute to ‘an all-round sweetie of a motor car’ in the October issue of The Automobile, available now.

Words by Zack Stiling
Photographs by Reverendpixel

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