 This was also the site of the Sandy Lane power station, which has now been turned into a mixed use residential and business development - Electric Wharf.Possibly Radford's greatest historical claim to fame comes from its centrality in the birth of the British motor car industry.The Great Horseless Carriage Company was established in 1896 in converted cotton mill works, and renamed Motor Mills, between St. Nicholas Street, Sandy Lane, and the Coventry Canal.