Tonbridge Daily Snippet

Mr A Cornell, Jeweller & Watchmaker, is said to be the very first person to drive a car through Tonbridge High Street c1896. He traded from his south High Street premises until his business was absorbed by Frank East Department Store, previously sited where Christ Church (opposite MacDonalds) now stands.

Above is Mr A Cornell at the wheel of the Arnold-Benz motor car with an unknown lady passenger, and possibly car manufacturer Walter Arnold on the rear of the vehicle.

The winner of the first ever London to Brighton race drove an Arnold motor car manufactured by Arnold Motor Carriage Co of East Peckham, Tonbridge, Kent.  The agricultural engineering firm built twelve cars patterned after the Benz and one still survives.  Arnolds exhibited at the 1896 Motor Show.

Photograph courtesy of www.gracesguide.co.uk