V-E-V Odds & Ends, July 1982

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If anyone wants to complete a 1920s garage scene, a reader informs us that he has two Wood-Milne foot-pumps that appear to date back to that or even to the WWI period. They are complete but “scruffy” he says. Enquiries can be forwarded. That big Somerset event, the Yeovil Festival of Transport, takes place again this year, on August 14th/15th, the tenth of its kind, again sponsored by Mercedes-Benz (UK) Ltd., under the Presidency of the Rt. Hon. The Lord Strathcarron. This is an event for cars of all kinds but with a strong vintage and veteran flavour. Details are available from Chris Hicks, 116 Legion Road, Yeovil, Somerset, BA21 3AY. Recent issues of the Jowett CC’s Jowetter have contained pictures of the sports-model flat-twin Jowett in contemporary trials, a Jowett “covered lorry” used by C. Kale, Greengrocer, and a 10 cwt. Jowett van used by W. Baker, Confectioner, as well as those of a pre-war Jowett saloon at the seaside in the 1950s. The Club, which caters for Javelins and Jupiters as well as older Jowetts and Bradfords, held its Holker Hall Weekend last month. A reader has sent us an article about 180 years of instrument malcing by Elliott Brothers (London) Ltd., and Fisher Controls Ltd. which contains references and photographs of speed-recording instruments used at Brooklands, such as the Elliott Motormeter on S. F. Edge’s 90 h.p. Napier “Samson”, now being resuscitated in Australia, when it did 116 m.p.h. on the Track in 1908. Elliott’s also made the standard electric chronographs for the BARC, used at Brooklands, and standard speedometer testing gear for the RAC, but I didn’t realise that this make of speedometer was used on cars as recent as Sir Malcolm Campbell’s LSR “Bluebirds” and Eyston’s LSR “Thunderbolt”, as the article states. It appeared in last April’s issue of The Radio and Electronic Engineer (Vol. 52, No. 4). On July 4th various attractions, including displays of old and mare recent can, will be staged at Wellington Country Park, near Reading, by the Reading and Mid-Berks. Spastics Welfare Society, this Motor Fayre being to raise funds for equipment for the Dingley Paediatric Assessment Centre to be built at Battle Hospital, Reading. So if you fancy a day out. . . .

A 1913 Woodrow light car, discovered in 1952 abandoned in an overgrown lean-to, is being restored in Northampton by a VSCC member. The Reg. No. is BM 6678 and this may be the car which made an appearance at one of the first meetings of the Light Car Section of the VSCC. Apparently about 100 of this make were made, in Stockport, Cheshire, but the war put an end to production. The one in question, presumably the sole survivor, was first owned by a French Army Officer who was courting a musical comedy star, the actress’ name being found in gold letters on the bonnet when the paint had been stripped off! The restorer of the Woodrow is also rebuilding a one-owner 1937 Austin Twelve and he has two Amilcars, one rescued from a field in Moulton many years ago. Some blue prints of a circa-WWI eight-seater motor vehicle have come to light, designed by R. Ingleton-Mussclwhite, Carriage Designers, of Arcade Chambers, Northampton, and more information is craved. Can anyone recall anything? — W.B.