Traffic

In case you should think that speeding in the village is something new here are a couple of reports from the Steventon News:

May 1972

Effie Ralph remembered: - “Some years ago my father (John Kimber) was digging in the garden of Vine Cottage when he shouted to mother and me ‘Come Quick! There’s a horseless carriage coming down the hill’. We, with other villagers, rushed to our garden gates to see Lord Carnarvon of Newbury (joint discoverer of the Tomb of Tutankhamun) driving the first motor car seen in Steventon. In that week’s Abingdon Herald, it was reported that he was fined £10 for speeding (that is exceeding 10mph).

Lord Carnarvon was one of the first to own a motor car having been intrigued by them from the start. Given their unreliability, he always drove with Trotman his chauffeur who was also a mechanic. His father-in-law, Alfred de Rothschild, went one step further. He was driven in one car which was followed by a spare car plus a third vehicle containing his mechanics and spare parts for most eventualities. These precautions were vital for a smooth journey as there were no garages, no AA or rescue services and places to purchase petrol were few and far between. The tyres were a particular problem and often got punctures not least from the horse-shoe nails which were everywhere. Click for more In the beginning – Lady Carnarvon

December 1976(quoting Parish Council minutes)

In 1899 it was resolved that ‘the Chairman be requested to write to the County Council calling attention to the excessive speed at which cyclists and drivers of motor cars descended Steventon Hill, and enquiring whether in view of the danger caused to the inhabitants of the vicinity and the public generally the Council can take any measures by affixing Notice Boards at the top of the hill or otherwise to abate the nuisance.’

Lady Carnarvon also drove and raced