With ownership in Britain currently standing at around 20.5m there has been much talk of the new government's wish to reduce car usage in towns to help ease congestion and improve the environment.

The pre-eminent place of the motor car as an essential adjunct to modern living is made all the more remarkable when one considers that it has only been with us for a little over 100 years.

And it was exactly 100 years ago this year that a motor car was first seen on the streets of Newark.

Not surprisingly the sudden appearance of this new wonder of modern science caused quite a stir in the town prompting the Advertiser to print a detailed description of the vehicle and its movements: On Sunday last (January 9 1897 the first motor car passed through Newark.

There were three wheels to the machine one on either side of the front seat which like the back one was in the shape of a chair.

The power was procured by means of benzolene and the apparatus greatly similar to a gas engine was fixed under the back seat extending to the front. It was ridden by Messrs Ball and E. H. Grime who are touring this part of the country.

Those who saw it were not greatly struck by its appearance although the invention is certainly in the line of progress.

As the article makes clear the owners of this first car to pass through Newark were not residents of the area; the distinction of being the first Newarker to own a motor car is generally thought to belong to Mr Walter Hervey (later Sir Walter Hervey) who was an analyst to the Newark malting firm of Gilstrap Earp and Co.

Mr Hervey bought his motor car - a two-seater Deccaville - in 1899 and his chauffeur Mr Frederick Ellis later recalled that every time the car appeared on the streets a crowd would gather wherever it stopped.

Five years later in 1904 Mr Ellis claimed to be one of the first motorists in the county to be prosecuted for a driving offence when he was fined 40 shillings for speeding over Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

The constable who pointed out the offence recalled Mr Ellis was able to walk alongside the car while it was moving. By the time of Mr Ellis's prosecution motoring as a sport and a daring pastime was already well established in the public imagination.

Speed and endurance trials were regularly held up and down the country with both national and local newspapers reporting the various merits reliabilities and capabilities of different machines.

In 1900 the Automobile Club of Great Britain organised a mammoth 1 0 mile endurance trial passing through all the major towns in the country.

Sixty-five intrepid "motor-carists" set out from London in a dazzling array of weird and wonderful machines (including a steam carriage from America) and travelled all the way up the west side of the country to Edinburgh.

The return leg from Edinburgh back to London took them through towns and cities on the eastern side of the country and by the time they reached the Midlands 15 competitors had already dropped out.

For the Lincoln-Newark leg of the journey the Advertiser invited local businessman Mr William Percy Lowe Harrison to hitch a ride with one of the contestants and make a special report for the paper.

Joining the cars as they waited to set off from Lincoln Mr Harrison chose to ride in a 6hp Parisian Daimler Carriage commenting that once underway the car's tendency to rattle and vibrate completely disappeared being replaced by a most pleasing "pulsating rapture".

He continued: "At last with a warning note from our alarm we glided out of Lincoln and quickly passing villas and suburban residences were soon out into open country.

"At every lane end and hamlet were clusters of country folk. It was but a passing glimpse they got of us for we scudded past them swift as the arrow to its mark.

"There is an exhilaration about motoring which one has to experience to understand. "The thrill of the switchback is there and the pleasurable excitement of flying through the air acts like a tonic."

Arriving at Newark the cars proceeded along Northgate Castlegate Lombard Street and Victoria Street heading for the Spring House where afternoon tea was to be taken.

Most of the drivers however dispensed with refreshment being keen to press on to Nottingham. First across the line was the Honourable C. S. Rolls driving a 12hp racing Panhard.

Commenting on his victory Mr Harrison wrote: "In possessing a 12hp racing Panhard the Hon. C. S. Rolls has always been able to pass the field. It is true that during the tour at one corner he shot out a passenger and some of his luggage by a sudden swerve but apart from the single contretemps there was never a risky moment in the car's whole journey."

The Hon. C. S. Rolls was at that time a dealer for Panhard cars in London: it was not until 1904 that he joined forces with Henry Royce to form the Rolls Royce Motor Co.

Mr Harrison became one of Newark's first motor enthusiasts and having been bitten by the automobile bug began to devote much of his spare time to developing this interest.

y 1903-4 he had expanded his electrical engineering business at the bottom of Cartergate (now Fads d-i-y shop) into one of Newark's first motor garages becoming an agent for the Glasgow-based Argyll Motor Co Ltd.

He was also a keen amateur photographer and during the early 1900s took many enchanting photographs of the vehicles which he sold through his garage.

Th This week's picture is taken from a collection of more than 50 glass plate negatives taken by Mr Harrison.

ABOVE: Two of the first cars to be seen in Newark.