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Stepney Spare Wheel Company

The Stepney Spare Wheel Company was a ‘first’ in the early days of the motorcar – or to use an American phrase – the automobile. The founders of this pioneering venture were two young brothers who had left Pembrokeshire to open an ironmongers shop in the developing town of Llanelli

Walter Davies was born in North Court Parish, Spittal and educated at Spittal National School, Ellis Private School, Haverfordwest, and Cardigan Grammar School. Walter's elder brother was called Tom.

1895 At the age of 18, along with Tom (21), they opened an ironmongers shop in Stepney Street. Tom was the senior partner. Besides running the ironmongers business they assembled bicycles in a workroom which they occupied in Stepney Lane and sold from premises in the adjoining arcade.

1902-1904 the brothers added a motor department when they purchased a motorcar and started a car hire business, which became quite successful. One day a Judge hired the service to take him to Llandovery Court House. Unfortunately, or fortunately for the brothers, one of the tyres of the hired car had a puncture. This event cost the brothers time and money but set them thinking, and an idea was born that was to make them a fortune.

The idea led to the invention of the revolutionary ‘spare’ wheel in 1904 which could be carried on a bracket on the side of the car and be clamped on to the wheel with the punctured tyre. The brothers’ invention was known as the ‘Stepney Patent Spare Wheel for Motorcars’ and was an instant ‘hit’ with motorists.

1905 The invention, which later became known as the ‘Stepney Spare Wheel’ came to the notice of the Marquis of Dion (considered to be an expert in the automobile industry of the time) at the Olympia Motor Show of 1905. The Stepney Patent Spare Wheel, described as revolutionary and designed to be carried instead of a spare tyre, was acclaimed ‘to be the smartest novelty in the show’.

Advertising material claimed that the buyer would recoup any outlay over and over again, because the cost of damage to a car wheel driving home on a deflated tyre was more than the cost of the Stepney Wheel. During April 1905 the company only produced seven wheels, but large orders began to flow in from all directions and by August 1906 production figures showed that up to 1,000 wheels were being despatched every month.

The advertising ‘blurb’ also claimed that it only took one minute to fix the Stepney Wheel to a punctured wheel, saving stress, annoyance and loss of valuable time removing and replacing the damaged, dirty tyre. There were no levers or tools of any kind required to fix the wheel because it was secured by two simple thumbscrews.

There was also no need to inflate the tyre at the roadside, because the spare was always carried pumped hard and ready for use.

1906 According to the Chief Accountant who worked for the company from around 1906 "Tom Davies possessed the inventive flair whilst Walter was more of a businessman."

As the company expanded financial businessmen were attracted by the success of the enterprise and around 1906 Trapnell and Company of Cheltenham bought the patent interests and the brothers were reputed to have received £70,000 and been given shares and directorships.

1909 By 1909 the company could claim the wheel had been fitted to more than 75,000 cars, which was no mean achievement in the years when a man still walked in front of vehicles carrying a red flag. So successful was the company that its address was simply given as ‘Llanelly, South Wales’.

1910 An edition of Who’s Who in the Llanelly District, published in 1910, described the company as having a large factory in Llanelli, a distributing agency in London, and offshoots including:

Stepney Motor Wheel of Canada Limited;

Stepney Auto Reserve Rad of Berlin;

Oesterreichische Stepney Reserve Rad of Vienna;

Davies Brothers of Paris and Brussels;

and others in Italy and the United States of America.

The Stepney Spare Wheel, designed to keep motorists on the road after a puncture, had no hub or spokes, but did have suitable attachments to put over the bead on the rim of the wheel with the puncture. There was even a Combination Stepney Wheel fitted with four adjustable clips to suit ‘heavy touring cars’ that had different sized tyres at the front and the back.

1911-1914 The company’s most successful period was prior to the outbreak of the First World War, when about 200 people were employed at the factory in Copperworks Road and every London taxi was said to carry a Stepney Spare Wheel. The motorcars of distinguished people also carried the spare including the Tsar of Russia, the King of Spain, the Princess of Wales, the Crown Prince of Germany, the Duke of Oporto and Andrew Carnegie.

1914-1918 During and after the First World War the once successful business of the Davies Brothers suffered a decline, along with many other local businesses. However they continued to trade – marketing a tyre known as the ‘Stepney Roadgrip’, which was produced in a factory at Walthamstow, London.

1928 The Registered Office of the company moved to London.

1952 Tom Davies died in 1952.

1961 Walter Davies, Tom's life-long business partner, died and so ended an era for the brothers and the town.

Grass now covers the spot where once a busy railway siding serviced local businesses. The building with the apex roof has been changed many times over the years since it was used by the Davies Brothers as their factory for making the world-famous Stepney Spare Wheel. It is now home to Antioch Christ in the Community [2002].