Car built in Maidenhead 101 years ago returns to the town

‘A 101-year-old lady has returned to the town of her birth’ as Maidenhead Heritage Centre (MHC) welcomes a historic car first built in the town in 1921.

The GWK was a British vehicle made at a factory on the Cordwallis Estate in the early 20th century, with the company first starting out in Datchet.

MHC received the car in the will of a man called Keith Shaw, the grandson of Arthur Grice, who founded the GWK motor car brand, which ceased in 1926.

The cars manufactured used Coventry Simplex engines, but they were most famous for their invention of a unique friction drive system that they used instead of a conventional gear box. This transmitted the drive from the engine to the two back wheels.

MHC took delivery of the vehicle on Wednesday morning as it arrived on a trailer from the West Country, and a team of volunteers pushed it into pride of place inside the main gallery of the Park Street venue on permanent display.

Information panels are set to be hung on the walls to give visitors more insight into the history of the GWK car, and the museum will be open on Good Friday (tomorrow) and Easter Monday afternoons from 1pm-4pm for people to view the car.

“Most people do not know that there was a motoring industry in Maidenhead in the 1920s,” said MHC chairman Alan Mellins, who recently took over from long-standing chairman Richard Poad.

“A few years after the business [GWK] started, it moved to premises in Datchet and then on to the Cordwallis Estate in Maidenhead, and our car was manufactured there in 1921.

“This is an historic moment when a 101 year old lady returns to the town of her birth.”

Alan added the car is roadworthy and will be driven short distances to events happening across town later this year, including Maidenhead Festival in July.