John Henry Knight

I have walked past this plaque many times but never really taken much notice of what it said. So it was with some surprise, today, I realised that Farnham was once at the leading edge of the car industry. Born into a wealthy Farnham family John Henry Knight seems to have been a bit of a petrolhead pioneer. In 1895 he not only built a two seat petrol tricycle but took it out onto the road, driving around Farnham until he was stopped by the police. His subsequent prosecution led the way for new legislation permitting motorcars to be driven on public roads. The rest is, as they say, history.