a Payne & Bates built car of the early 1900s
Payne & Bates Ltd. were engineers and motor manufacturers based in Coventry at the turn of the 19th Century.
Walter Payne had begun a business in Coventry in 1890 as an Engine Maker, funded largely by George Bates. Known as the Godiva Engineering Company, by 1895, Payne had developed what is thought to have been one of the first petrol engines in Coventry, at a time when motorised transport was becoming ever-more developed on the continent.
In around 1898, Walter Payne, together with his brothers and Henry Bates, developed a car based on the Benz model, not long after the
Daimler Co. had begun mass marketing cars in Coventry. By 1900 they had progressed to assemble both a car and motorcycle known as the ‘Godiva’ under the guise of Payne & Bates Ltd. Soon afterwards, they were financed to build other cars known as the ‘Shamrock’ and ‘Stonebow’, yet all these projects were short-lived after the tragic death of George Bates in 1901.
Walter Payne continued to be involved in engineering until 1934.