A RELIC of the British motor industry has returned home almost 100 years after it was built.

And had the prototype found favour with those early motorists, it could have changed the shape of North-East manufacturing for ever.

The North, and not the Midlands, could have become the cradle of the British motor industry, a sector that once employed more than 500,000 people making vehicles for across the world.

As it was, the car was not an instant hit, possibly because it borrowed technology being developed for lorries, and the prototype was wheeled quietly away.

With it went hopes of a regional motor industry that were only realised when Nissan opened 80 years later.

The story only came to light after the vehicle was put up for sale by a private collector.

In 1906, the Seaham Harbour Engineering Works decided to dabble with the internal combustion engine.

The company, which had made steam road wagons, made a prototype Shew - named from the company's initials.

Experts believe the vehicle was built by the Sedan Auto Car Syndicate in Dudley to a design by Thomas Parker.

Parker specified an articulated chassis, and front-wheel drive by a chain.

It was sent to the Seaham works for evaluation, where the commercials would be produced, but it did not perform well.

Engineers ditched the front-wheel-drive and fixed the articulated chassis, but to no avail.

The unloved car was used as a truck by the engineering works until the First World War, when it was driven into a shed and forgotten.

It was bought by a private collector in 1957 and is now at the Beamish Museum, in County Durham, which bought it at auction and plans to restore it.

Until the restoration, it will be on display to visitors.

Keeper of industry Jim Rees said that in the early 1900s, the North-East had six motor manufacturers and several motorbike firms, most famously Armstrong Whitworth, who gave up cars to concentrate on armaments during the First World War.

Mr Rees said: "The Shew is a very archaic contraption, but fascinating. It would have been a fairly slow and petrol-thirsty contraption.

"The Shew did not take off, but it has served as an oddity.

"A lot of people think that car manufacturing started with Nissan, so it is nice to remind them that cars were being built here long before that."