Early in 1911, the JAP company found it necessary to move to new premises, as further expansion had become impossible at the now very cramped site in Lansdowne Road. Fortunately, an alternative site was acquired in Northumberland Park, which was still within the Borough of Tottenham and only about 3/4 mile away. The Northumberland Park address remained the home of J.A. Prestwich and Co. Ltd, until the works closed down completely during 1963. By now the Prestwich family had moved to Westcliff-onSea, in Essex, as Arthur, one of John's sons, suffered from asthma. At this time his family comprised four sons, Vivian, Arthur, Edward and Roland, in order of seniority. A fifth son, Douglas, was born whilst they lived in Westcliff. But by 1914 they had moved back to the London area again, this time to settle in Muswell Hill.
There is an unusual story relating to the new factory because when it was half built there was a builders' strike. Unwilling to accept this unexpected delay in completion, John Prestwich employed the builders himself and had the job finished on target. It is also interesting to learn he was responsible for naming the road. It got its name - Tariff Road - due to the fact that the Government had introduced a discriminatory tax on motorcycles from abroad, notably the American Indian, to discourage their importation.
American big twins dominate Class-E competition in Britain
Competition successes [for JAP] were not so frequent during this period [1921], especially now that the American twins were beginning to dominate the larger capacity classes. JAP advertising copy preferred to refer to world opinion of their engines, reprinting testimonials from satisfied users in England, South Africa and Australia.
The first road test of a Brough Superior to be published in The Motor Cycle appeared in their 20th January issue. The machine was hailed as Britain's answer to the American big twins, and the only criticism that could be levelled was the noise of the valve gear of the JAP engine at high speeds. This criticism, however, may have been influenced by the fact that the test machine was hitched to a side car, from which mechanical noise could have been reflected. The outfit had the registration number HP2122, a number that was subsequently used on many 'works' models of one kind or another, to the confusion of historians in later years!
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