Little-known inventor caused a sensation

Thanks to Clevedon steam-roller driver Richard Stephens, many people saw moving pictures or heard gramophone recordings for the first time. He was also an extraordinarily gifted inventor, bicycle manufacturer and car maker. This weekend sees the unveiling of a full-size replica of his first car and, say Peter Gibbs and William Fairney, perhaps this will bring his memory some of the attention it deserves.

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FEW have heard of Richard Stephens, even though he invented one of Britain’s first cars, as well as a bicycle, introduced Bristol to moving pictures and the phonograph and produced motorised Hackney carriages for Bath, annoying drivers of the horse-drawn variety.

However all that is to change thanks to American filmmaker Mark Reber, who commissioned a full-size replica of the first Stephens car and has organised sponsorship so it can be placed in his adopted town of Clevedon, where the original vehicles were built.

The replica, built by Ryan Atkins and Mark in Lincoln, will be unveiled this coming Saturday (July 12), on the town’s Six Ways roundabout.

The ceremony, due to start at 11am, will be watched by car enthusiasts gathering with their vehicles for the monthly Clevedon Cars & Coffee rally, which Mark began four years ago and where he first heard about Stephens in 2023.

Mark, who directed many commercials for American companies and votes in the Academy Awards as a member of the Directors Guild of America, later organised a talk in the town by Bill Fairney, author of Richard Stephens and the Clevedon Motor Cars, and there followed a meeting with Patrick Collins, Curator of Vehicles & Research at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.

Christopher Loder, who owns one of the original cars, then allowed Mark to use cutting-edge 3D scanning technology to document meticulously every curve and contour of the vehicle’s exterior.

Richard Stephens, born in Cwmbran, arrived in Clevedon in early 1889 with his wife, Mary, and twin children, by way of mining jobs in Australia, the United States and Canada, to drive and maintain a steamroller for the town council. He was obviously fascinated with engineering and while in the United States made the acquaintance of Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph and other innovative devices, and met Ransom Olds, creator of the Oldsmobile, and reportedly Henry Ford.