DESCENDANTS of a Malvern wheelwright firmly believe he made the wheels for the first ever Morgan "car."

Harper Edgecombe Gillam was employed for many years as a wheelwright on the Madresfield Court Estate of Earl Beauchamp. He was born in 1861, at Hook Common, near Upton-on-Severn, and followed in the footsteps of his father, Charles Gillam as a wheelwright.

Harper lived with his wife, son and two daughters at Guarlford, and then at Spring Gardens, Malvern Link.

An occasional visitor to the Gillam household in the early part of the 20th Century was "Master Harry" - Henry Morgan, founder of the now world-famous Morgan of Malvern car manufacturing company.

I've been learning about Harper Edgecombe Gillam from his grandson, John Allbutt of Woodside Road, Worcester, who related the family tale of how his grandfather was involved in making the first Morgan "car."

"My mother, Harper's daughter Florence Emily Gilliam, told me how 'Master Harry' approached her father and asked him to make the three wheels for a contraption he intended to propel up Belle Vue, Malvern, for a £5 bet! It seems the three wheels cost about £1 to produce."

From 1911 onwards, Henry Morgan produced early prototype open two-seater cars which looked little more than tin bath-tubs on three wheels. However, they were to be the forerunners of the elite Morgan sports cars from what became the oldest privately-owned company in the motor car industry.

John Allbutt says in her youth, his mother was taken for a drive by Henry Morgan in one of his early "contraptions," but was seen by her father during the outing and immediately banned from ever repeating the venture.

"My grandfather's displeasure had not been on safety grounds but because Henry Morgan had taken my mother out in his car on a Sunday - something then taboo!"

John says that from about the age of eight, his mother would regularly help her father in his Madresfield workshop.

"She would go round with a bucket, throwing water on to the wooden rims of wheels under construction as her father fitted the red hot outer iron rings."

John's mother later married Horace Allbutt, son of a Worcester coal merchant, who worked for more than 50 years as an accountant with Heenan & Froude Ltd.

Another grandson of Harper Edgecombe Gillam is Len Coleman of Malvern. He was told by his mother that Harper sometimes disappeared on "benders" when he went with colleagues from Spring Lane to Malvern Link Station to collect materials which had come by train.

"He would go off pushing his handcart towards the station but not arrive home for two days, having gone on a bender in the pubs at Malvern Link."