EPISODE 615 .THE LITTLE SKEOCH AUTOMOBILE UPDATE ….NEW WALL MURAL update from episode 134, NOv.27, 2018




EPISODE 615    Skeoch mural in Dalbeattie, SCOTLAND….THE LITTLE SKEOCH AUTOMOBILE, Episode 134 REPEATED


alan skeoch
august 3, 2022

Geoff Allison just sent me this notice about a wall mural in Dalbeattie, Scotland, celebrating
the manufacture of the 1921 Little Skeoch Car.

You may remember an earlier story about the Little Skeoch (cited below) 
but first see the mural using Geoff’s email 




Dear Skeoch contacts,

You might be interested is a vlog which was posted this week about a mural in Dalbeattie about the Skeoch Cycle Car see https://www.dgwgo.com/community-focus/mural-commemorate-james-b-skeochs-utility-cycle-car-commissioned-dalbeattie/
Kind regards,
Geoff







EPISODE 134:  ONCE UPON A  TIME THERE WAS  A MOTOR CAR CALLED  THE LITTLE SKEOCH

(also called  The Skeoch Motorcycle  Car)

alan  skeoch
Nov. 27. 2018

     REVISED OCT. 2020 (slightly)

It has  now been  two years since I touched base with the men rebuilding The Litle Skeoch Motor Car

in Scotland.  It is a daunting task.  We had planned on a  visit to their workshop but sad events
got in the way…and  Covid 19 makes such visits difficult today.  How the world has changed.
Maybe I can get a progress report from Scotland.  Meanwhile I feel this story should be part
of the Episodes (#134) just in case it gets lost.

alan


Maybe we should bring back the LITTLE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR.   It was small,, cheap and  simple…sort of  a  4 wheel bicycle  seating two people with a chain drive and  small

motorcycle  engine.  So small that only two very slim people could  ride in it since the

car was  only 31 inches  wide and a  little over 8 feet long.  

Some of  you may think this  is some kind  of joke.  Wrong.  In 1920, James Skeoch built his first Little Skeoch, then entered it in a Scottish auto show and sold it
in ten minutes.   All  told less than a dozen Little Skeoch’s  were built in his small factory.  Ten  were quickly purchased at that auto show. Price?  180 pounds…which was the cheapest car in the show.  None have survived.   Sadly in 1921 a fire  consumed  his little factory and as  a  result the Burnside Motor Company in Dalbeattie,  Scotland, ceased to exist.




Skeoch utility car




The original Skeoch Utility Car.


Skeoch Utility car advertisement






Burnside Motorworks

Pictures of the Skeoch production line were retrieved from Skeoch  family albums.   Not exactly an automated  factory.
But the LITTLE SKEOCHS were real mini cars and seemed about to make a big splash in the booming car market of the 1920’s
until  fire ended  the enterprise.  Everything became a  blackened  pile  of scrap  iron.

James Skeoch moved on.   His skills were valued.  He had a  long successful career and  died  in 1954.
Not many people, by 1954, were even  aware that there was  such a  car as the SKEOCH.   Memories are short especially since 
none of the Little Skeochs  survived.   Gone  Gone Gone.    

Well, not quite.

POSSIBLE REBIRTH OF THE LITTLE SKEOCH

HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON THE WALL

HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD  A GREAT FALL
ALL THE KING’S HORSES
AND ALL THE KING’S MEN
COULDN’T PUT HUMPTY TOGETHER AGAIN.

…Then  along came GEORGE ALLISON and his men from Dalbeattie, Scotland…who
plan to put Humpty togehter again.




P.S.   BELOW IS AN ARICLE  ON THE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR WRITTEN
FOR BBC  SCOTLAND NEWS ,  Feb. 27, 2018

Drive to rebuild ‘forgotten’ early car

By Nichola Rutherford
BBC Scotland News

Published
27 February 2018

IMAGE COPYRIGHTDALBEATTIE MUSEUM
image captionThe Skeoch Utility Car was built using parts normally used to manufacture motorcycles
When James Skeoch designed and built one of Scotland’s firstaffordable cars, he must have dreamed of huge success. 
With a price-tag of just £180, the first Skeoch Utility Car was the cheapest on display at the Scottish Motor Show in 1921. 
It sold within 10 minutes and a further nine were quickly snapped up by customers keen to join the automobile revolution. 
But within months Skeoch’s business was in ruins. His uninsured workshop in Dalbeattie, Dumfries and Galloway, burned to the ground. 
Since then the Skeoch Utility Car has been largely forgotten by all but keen historians of Scotland’s motor industry. 
Now, almost 100 years later, plans are are being drawn up to recreate the so-called “cycle car” in the town where it was manufactured. 

IMAGE COPYRIGHTDALBEATTIE MUSEUM
image captionThe Skeoch car was the cheapest on show at the Scottish Motor Show in 1921 and apparently sold within 10 minutes
The ambitious project has been taken on by a group of mainly retired local men, known as Dalbeattie Men’s Shed. 
Using some of the original parts and working from the original drawings, they hope to build a working Skeoch car in time to mark its centenary. 
Motoring enthusiast Martin Shelley approached the Men’s Shed with the idea for the project after reading about the group on the BBC Scotland website last year. 

IMAGE COPYRIGHTDALBEATTIE MUSEUM
image captionBurnside Motor Works in Dalbeattie, where the Skeoch was manufactured, was devastated by fire in December 1921
The group, which meets in a workshop in Dalbeattie twice a week, was named Shed of the Year for its efforts to “help as many local people as possible”.
“Using the Dalbeattie Men’s Shed’s energy, enthusiasm and skills to recreate the car seemed like a match made in heaven,” Mr Shelley said.
He said “cycle cars” were first invented in the early 1900s and they got their name after using motorcycle engines and wheels. 
They became increasingly popular after World War One, when soldiers returned home from the front line, having become used to driving. 
Skeoch radiator badgeichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg 320w, ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg 480w, ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg 624w, ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg 800w” src=”https://c.files.bbci.co.uk/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg” width=”976″ height=”549″ loading=”lazy” class=”css-evoj7m-Image ee0ct7c0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: flex; width: 800px; height: 450px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; inset: 0px; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; object-fit: cover;”>
image captionThe Skeoch radiator badge was among the original parts found in the home of Mr Skeoch’s son following his death last year

image captionDalbeattie Men’s Shed have also been given an original engine and gearbox with which to build a Skeoch car
Mr Shelley said: “After World War One, the ordinary working man was much more used to the idea of riding a motorcycle or driving a car so they knew about the technology and now they wanted to try and build their own cars. 
“In the early 20s, there was a huge flowering of people making these cars. As it turned out, Skeoch in Dalbeattie were the only people in Scotland to ever attempt to make these things commercially.”
The original drawings and parts – including the radiator badge – were found in the Wishaw home of Ron Skeoch, James Skeoch’s son, after he died last year. 
Mr Shelley said he hoped they could be used to capture the “spirit” of the 1920s vehicle. 
“You could make a replica of the car which would pass muster, using a modern engine and a modern gear box and using modern parts. But the spirit of the car is very much based on the parts that were available in 1920,” he said. 
“This project will be very like the original car and that to me is what the joy of the whole thing is.”

image captionFiona Sinclair hopes to be able to sit in one of her grandfather’s cars

image caption“It’s going to be something for posterity,” said Geoff Allison of Dalbeattie Men’s Shed
The granddaughter of James Skeoch, Fiona Sinclair, is also involved in the project. 
She never knew her grandfather – he died in 1954 – but she hopes that her mother – Skeoch’s daughter – will get the chance to ride in one his cars.
“I think it’s going to mean a lot to my family,” she said. “It’s tragic that the fire put an end to his ambition. 
“I’m actually rather hoping I can physically get to sit in the car, I’m not quite sure I could be trusted with driving it. 
“It’s only got two gears apparently but I think it would be rather wonderful. What I really hope is that my mother gets the opportunity to actually sit in the car as well.” 
The project is “immensely exciting”, said Geoff Allison, the secretary of the Dalbeattie Men’s Shed, which has members with engineering and mechanical skills. 
“It’s engineering-rich, it’s Dalbeattie-rich, it’s community-rich, it fills so many of our requirements,” he added. 
“It’s big, it’s going to be eye-catching, it’s going to be something for posterity. It’s got a lot to recommend it.”

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