1903 Humberette

Humber

Humber was one of Britain's oldest cycle marques, Thomas Humber making his first bikes in Nottingham in 1870 before opening factories to mass-produce the then new-fangled 'Safety Bicycles' in both Coventry and Wolverhampton in 1886. Having built their first 3-wheeler in 1896, Humber became the very first manufacturers of series-production motor cars in England. Humber also opened an aircraft engine manufacturing division in 1909 and made motorcycles until 1930. Like several other marques, Humber was eventually absorbed into the Rootes Group, which, in turn, was taken over by Chrysler of the US before being off-loaded to French Peugeot who are most unlikely to revive the Humber name for any of their Euro models in the future.
The first car was produced in 1898 and was a three-wheeled tricar with the first conventional four-wheeled car appearing in 1901. The company had factories in Beeston near Nottingham and Coventry. The Beeston factory produced a more expensive range known as Beeston-Humbers but the factory closed in 1908 after financial problems. Before the First World War a wide range of models were produced from the 600 cc Humberette to several 6 cylinder 6 litre models. In 1913 Humber was the second largest manufacturer of cars in the United Kingdom.