An interesting aspect when discovering new bicycle, cars and motorcycle makers are the names that they choose for their vehicles. This blog post is dedicated to some of the vehicle names from the North-West. Many have been discovered from trade directories, newspaper advertisements and show catalogues.

Some companies went for the tried and tested policy of using their last name or the company name. An example being the “Brock” cycle and motor bicycle made by the Brock Cycle and Motor Depot in Levenshulme or Ardwick (they had two addresses). A few companies with longer names chose to abbreviate. “R-P” cars, motorcycles and bicycles were made by Robinson and Price Ltd. of Liverpool. Likewise “N-B” cars were manufactured by Newton and Bennett in Salford. A little bit more inventive were textile machinery manufacturers Horsfall and Bickham. They called their cars “Horbick”, a handy shortened version of their company name.