THE commercial possibilities offered by the motor car were appreciated in the Malvern Gazette a century ago.

The columnist Ariel was remarking on the enterprise of a grower from Evesham who brought a car-load of fine strawberries to sell in Malvern.

"A car such as that could visit many towns in the course of a summer's day and do very many pounds' worth of business," mused Ariel.

He said the car could have an adverse impact on the operators of the railway system.

"The vast majority of market gardeners will agree that if they could make as much direct profit from their produce as the railway companies make out of them, they would be perfectly satisfied.

"The pioneers of the new movement for distribution by motor-car will be looked on with jealousy for a time, but if it pays an individual to carry out such a scheme, it would pay a small group to co-operate in the purchase of a car."