What would eventually become the Rover company began by manufacturing one of the landmark designs in the history of human transportation: the 'Safety Bicycle'.

Brainchild of John Kemp Starley, the Rover cycle featured two identical sized wheels and chain drive to the rear, thus rendering the precarious front-drive 'Ordinary', better known as the 'Penny Farthing', obsolete at a stroke.

The firm's first venture into powered transportation came in 1888 with an electrically powered tricycle but it would be another 16 years, by which time its founder J K Starley had died, before the Rover Cycle Company began experimenting with the internal combustion engine.

Designer Edmund Lewis was recruited from Daimler and drew up Rover's first series-production automobile, an 8hp single-cylinder with aluminium backbone frame, an adventurous design that despite its shortcomings remained in production until 1912.

Lewis followed up with a more conventional 6hp model, which earned itself the distinctio...