Lynx Motors Ltd., North Malvern, Worcs.

Lynx Motors Ltd. was incorporated on 17th January 1923 as motor engineers, motor contractors and car dealers. It was a subsidiary of PYX Granite Ltd. and provided haulage from that company's quarries at the north end of the Malvern Hills. Lynx Motors had a fleet of Garrett steam wagons; having had at least 30 Garrett five ton overtypes all of which were secondhand and varied in date from 1912 to 1920. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of Garrett overtypes owned by the firm. They must have been satisfied with Garrett's products since they went on to buy four new six-wheeled undertypes with 3-way tipping bodies in 1930. A further undertype was added to the fleet in 1932; but more of that later. In addition to the Garretts wagons they had one Burrell and one Clayton overtype. The following picture is from Garrett's advertising publication "The Garrett Gazette" showing the first three of the Lynx Motors six-wheelers, delivered in March 1930.

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The PYX Granite Co. was formed by Alfred John Creed who, by 1905, owned a stone quarry at Chudleigh, Devon. It was whilst he was here that he met Frank Hudson who was to become his financial backer. The company was incorporated in 1907 as shown on the attached extract of Who’s Who in Business 1914 which has been copied from Graces Guide. It will be noted that quarries were listed at Malvern, Worcs; Horsehay, Salop; and Criggion, Montgomeryshire. For more details of the quarrying activities at Malvern see the following web site produced by the Malvern U3A: Little Malvern Quarry . This site shows pictures of an early Burrell steam tractor towing a trailer lettered up for "The PYX Granite Coy Ltd., Malvern".

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Alfred John Creed was born in 1875 at Thornbury in Gloucestershire, the son of a farm bailiff.  He trained as a wheelwright but by the age of 25 was a quarry manager.  In 1905 he owned a stone quarry at Chudleigh, Devon; it was here that he met Frank Hudson, who was to become his financial backer.  It is believed that the name Pyx Granite Co. Ltd. came from a place called Pyx, or some derivation of this name, which was located in the quarry in Chudleigh. 

Alfred Creed's son Lionel was born in Devon in 1905 and he was to become the works manager of Lynx Motors and eventually Managing Director of Pyx Granite Co. Ltd. and Lynx Motors Ltd. when they were acquired by The British Quarrying Company (wholly owned by the Amalgamated Roadstone Corporation) on 31st March 1947. Incidentally, the British Quarrying Company had owned seven Garrett undertype wagons at the J.Arnold & Sons Quarry in Chipping Sodbury.

I had the pleasure of visiting Lionel Creed at his home in Pickersleigh Road, Malvern Link in 1981 when I went to see the Garrett Undertype Steam Lorry Model he had purchased from Garrett's receiver in June 1932. He had made visits to Garrett's works to obtain parts for the rebuilding of a Garrett six-wheeler he had purchased after it had suffered the misfortune of running away backwards downhill, smashing through a bridge parapet and landing upside down on the London & South Western Railway line at Budleigh Salterton, between Exmouth and Feniton. The wagon had been owned by William Elworthy of Tiverton and photographs of the incident were featured in the Exmouth Journal in 2016

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There had been no injuries to the crew who had jumped clear, or to the small dog that had accompanied the wagon onto the railway line. The wagon was loaded onto a railway wagon and transported to Malvern Link. It was subsequently rebuilt and added to the fleet of Lynx Motors Ltd.

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The picture below is of Garrett wagon no. 35433, registration number UY8623, the fourth wagon supplied to Lynx Motors in August 1930.

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One of the Lynx Motors six-wheelers left the road at Maisemore near Gloucester and some photographs of this incident have also survived. The size of the hook and chain wrapped around the rear axle of the wagon suggest that a substantial recovery vehicle had been used to pull the wagon out of the deep ditch.

Photograph courtesy of Mr R Creed.

Photograph courtesy of Mr R Creed. 

Lionel Creed was a keen follower of Motor Sport and attended the Le Mans 24 Hour Race in 1931. He raced Morgan three wheelers for the factory which was close to where he lived. The photos below are of him driving at the Madresfield Speed Trials in 1924 and him standing by a modified Morgan super sports NP9378, with OHV Blackburn engine and nickel plated front mudguards.

Photograph courtesy of Mr R Creed.

 Photograph courtesy of Morgan Three Wheeler Club.

I would like to find photographs of some of the Garrett overtype wagons to post on this page. If you can help, or have any other information about Lynx Motors Ltd. or PYX Granite please contact me This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.