02-08-2025
- Automotive
- Powys County Times
The Newtown man who became the first driver in Britain
DID you know the first person in the entirety of Great Britain to drive a motor vehicle was from Newtown in Powys?
The story of Lloyd Barratt was almost forgotten in his own lifetime and probably would have been had it not been for a feature in the County Times in 1968 to mark his 90th birthday.
The son of a prosperous wool merchant, monocled, moustached, impeccably dressed, Lloyd Barratt epitomised an old-world courtesy which left us before the First World War.
He was a man from yesterday who lived most vitally in the Newtown of the modern era.
But on top of that he enjoyed a distinction which set him apart. No-one in the United Kingdom had driven a motor vehicle longer than he.
Mr Barratt left Newtown at the age of 19 to work for his uncle, Mr Frederick William Barratt, who ran a pioneering motor car business in Dorset.
His uncle had the concession for the sale of Benz and Delage in the Hampshire and Dorset area.
Young Barratt not only learnt to drive these cars but also made himself into an expert motorist long before the first driving licences were introduced in 1903.
