In 1865 the Company began to give prizes for the encouragement of good design and workmanship in the construction of vehicles. In fact the encouragement of technical education and the improvement of design are objectives which the Company has consistently supported financially.

The subjects for which prizes were awarded reflect the changes in fashion and habits of the day, as the following examples show. In 1884 there was a prize for “a lady’s driving phaeton, ascent between the wheels, any shape (except Stanhope or mail) being eligible, except that the hood to be shown down”. Thirteen years later the Company offered a prize (but made no award) for designs for a “selfpropelled light motor carriage”. In 1904 a design was invited for a motor car to carry four people in the hind part and one or two in the driver’s seat, suitable for a petrol engine”. The hind part to be convertible from an open to a closed carriage.

When the horse-drawn carriage was superseded by the motor-car at the turn of the century, the number of coachmakers who changed with the times was not large, and their number diminished even more when hand-made motor coachwork gave way to the all-steel pressed body of the mass-produced car. Fortunately the growing number of motor manufacturers were recognised by the Coachmakers Company, a City Livery with which they could naturally be identified. They were soon joined by the makers of the ‘coaches of the air’ and these two industries – motor and aircraft – became the modern equivalents of the coachmakers and coach harness makers of old.