JOHN ICELEY WARMAN (1848-1931)
John Icely Warman was involved in running a number of firms making high-wheelers, including the ‘Albion’ dwarf roadster, ‘Artisan’, ‘Coventry Triumph’, ‘Hollow Fork Special Triumph’, ‘Juvenile Triumph’ and ‘Triumph’. Having first worked for the Coventry Machinists Co. Ltd, and then Smith Starley & Co., he formed his own firms at Albion Mills, West Orchard, Coventry, Warwickshire. These were:
Warman, Laxon & Co, 1876-1880
Warman, Laxon & Aslatt, 1880-81
Warman, Laxon & Aslatt was dissolved on 24 November 1881
Warman, Laxon & Youett, 24 November 1881 – 13 February 1884;
Warman & Co. (1884-1888);
Warman & Hazlewood (1889);
Warman & Hazlewood Ltd (1890). The latter was floated with capital of £70,000 in £10 shares of which £47,320 was subscribed and £20,000 allotted to the vendors in deferred shares. In its first two years a dividend of 10% was paid on both classes of shares. The Warman & Hazlewood trademark in 1891 was two inter-twined circles with initials in each.
Warman patented an improved drive for the tricycle (1878/3310). The ‘Rival’ high-wheeler was produced from c.1887 and the ‘Albion’ tricycle in 1889. The ‘Safety’ and ‘Victoria’ were made before 1892. Warman, Laxon & Co. produced the ‘Triumph’ folding tricycle in 1879. Two set screws could be undone and the spindle holding the nearside wheel would slide through the frame tube. There was also the ‘One-track’ sociable, made in 1886, in which there were two small wheels outside of the main driving wheel and steerer which were in line. The two small wheels did not normally touch the ground when riding. The ‘Coventry Cross’ was later offered.
The company made losses from 1893 to 1896 when it was acquired on 1 May 1896 by the Coventry Cross Cycle Co. for £46,131. It was common practice for a cycle firm to be wound up and then be bought by the original owner: as ‘Coventry Cross’ was a model name from Warman’s previous company, this might have been the case. (In some Coventry Cross advertising, they claimed their company was founded in 1876, the date of Warman’s first company).
Warman emigrated to the USA in 1893 or 1895, buying a farm in Michigan. He died at Berrien Springs in 1931.
Coventry Cross became a subsidiary of Royal Enfield, probably in 1906, and they then manufactured Royal Enfield’s budget range of bicycles. Though Coventry Cross was not a successful company, Hazlewoods Ltd, founded from the remains of Coventry Cross, went on to make motorcycles as well as bicycles; the company apparently ceased trading in 1928.
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With regular changes of investors backing his firms, and the company names being updated accordingly, information on Warman’s businesses is confusing and conflicting. I found the following newspaper reports (below) which seem to contradict some of the dates published in the book ‘Coventry’s Bicycle Heritage’ and other sources, so I’ve combined the various pieces of information to provide an overall picture of Warman’s cycle manufacturing history.
