V.E.V. Miscellany., January 1969

It was amusing to see, in a recent Newsletter of the Veteran Car Club, advertisements for a 1932 Hillman Minx and a 1938 Armstrong Siddeley. Number two of a Doncaster Gazette publication called “Old Doncaster”, available for 3s. from 10, North Bridge Road, Doncaster, contains contrasting pictures of scenes in that city over the past 60 years. There is a view of the factory in which Cheswold cars were made, tramcar scenes, pictures of a 1908 Dennis ‘bus which ran out to Brodsworth Model Village, the Daimler used by Sir George and Lady Doughty when they visited the 1912 Empire Fair, a Doncaster M.C. assembly outside the “Reindeer” for a run to Newark, with an early Morgan 3-wheeler in the foreground, and shots of motorcycle racing over the Sandall Beat mile (this one appears to be post-war, so the estimate of speeds in the region of 35 m.p.h. is unduly modest!), and of Cody in his biplane at the 1909 Doncaster aviation meeting. A vintage 5.8-litre sleeve-valve Minerva with open touring body majestically roams the roads of Hampshire. The Veteran Car Club of Gt. Britain had 583 full Members, 1,229 associate members and 98 junior members at the last Count. Mr. J. N. Holmes, Withens, Miller’s Lane, Outwood, Redhill, Surrey, would like owners of Rover Speed 145 to contact him, with a view to taking some action about the new headlamp regulations, as it is impossible, he says, to comply with them unless the frontal appearance of these cars is completely altered. He appeals through these columns because only one of these cars is on the Rover Sports Register, although 230 were made in 1935 and 1936. The Rapier Register, which has a membership of around 130, had traced 259 Lagonda Rapiers out of the 350 to 400 built last year and an annual register of these is published. In addition, the duplicated Rapier Register News is issued monthly. Rapier and Lagonda Rapier owners are eligible, the annual subscription is £1 with 10s. entry fee, and the Hon. Secretary is: J. F. Organ, “Onoway”, Chalford Hill, Stroud, Glos.

Will the person who told the Continental Correspondent at Wiscombe last year that he had a scale model SE5 biplane for disposal please contact the Editor? The B.B.C. has had an enormous viewing for its serial play “The Forsyte Saga” based on those excellent novels by John Galsworthy. But in Part 13 there was an unfortunate mistake. One of the characters had arrived at a farm in Sussex by car, in the early nineteen-twenties, and was asked its make. She replied that they were now running an Angus-Sanderson, adding “It’s a Scotch make”. In fact, the Angus-Sanderson was made in Durham and later in Middlesex. The Producer and Script-writer had presumably confused this car with the Arrol-Johnston. Also, in this episode, which surely took place before 1926, the Austin London taxi seen in it was some ten years too modern. A pity, because earlier taxis are available and for such an important, enjoyable and successful play one would have thought the B.B.C. might have taken greater pains to ensure accuracy.

Some struts and parts of an undercarriage, with wheels, thought to be from a First World War RE8 biplane, have turned up at a school in Boston Spa, near Leeds, and further parts form part of the fencing round the school grounds. Sister Barbara, a teacher at the school, who is involved with a pupils’ flying project, thinks the parts came from buildings the school acquired in 1920 and which were formerly on an aerodrome. Another hangar still stands on the Leeds University Experimental Farm and is visible from the A1 road between Leeds and Tadcaster. Amongst steam-rollers still in recent service is Fowler Reg. No. FF 4310. At a recent meeting of the Pendine Parish and County Councils, the Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire recommended to the Ministry of Defence that the Thomas Special “Babs” should be dug up from the grave in the sand dunes which it has occupied since early in 1927.