The Ellis Journey

To be held on June 29 and 30, 2019, the Ellis Journey is a re-enactment of the journey made on July 5, 1895 by the Hon Evelyn Ellis and his passenger Fredrick Simms.

Setting off on Ellis’s newly acquired, French-built, four-horsepower Panhard et Levassor, from Micheldever Railway Station, near Winchester, at precisely 9.26am, Simms (the man who set up Daimler in the UK, and who is credited with creating the words ‘petrol’ and ‘motor car’) recorded every detail of the journey on the old London coaching road, travelling via Basingstoke, Hatch, Blackwater, Bagshot, Virginia Water and Englefield Green.

After eight hours and 14 minutes, they arrived at Ellis’s riverside home in Datchet, close to Windsor Castle, at 5.40pm.​

The journey was deliberately made in contravention of the legal speed limit, as they averaged almost 10mph without the required attendant walking in front of the car with a red flag.

Read more in the December 2018 issue of OBM – on sale now!