I started my banking career in Welshpool, Montgomeryshire in March, 1964 as a young lad of seventeen.  A year or two later I thought about buying my first car.  Several of my older friends had fine veteran or vintage cars but my ambitions had to be rather more modest!  So I was thrilled when, in 1966, I was told of an Austin Seven, laid up a few miles outside Welshpool, which had not been used for several years.   Excitedly, I made arrangements to visit the car’s owner and to look at the car with a friend.  It turned out not to be an Austin Seven but a larger car – a 1937 Austin Ten Cambridge saloon!   It had an old Montgomeryshire registration number – EP 6915.

The car’s owner, Mrs. Harriet Lloyd Jones of The Cottage, Maesmawr, Welshpool was probably in her late 70s or early 80s when I first met her.   Widowed before the war, she had purchased the car new in 1937, travelling down to Longbridge with the owner of Ballard’s Garage in Welshpool to collect it.   I still have the Austin’s original log-book showing the registration date of 4th June, 1937.

The Cottage at Maesmawr, was a large house and even in the 60s had no running water or electricity.  The Austin was kept in the old stable block and I remember taking some black and white photographs of the remains of Mrs. Lloyd Jones’ hansom cab which were lying outside the stable block.  I cannot now recall the car’s original mileage but it was clear that she drove only a few hundred miles each year.  Later I learnt that she normally used the car once a week for a trip into Welshpool - a round journey of about fourteen miles.

Because the car had been standing for a few years it took a bit of effort to get it going again; memories of plugs and points being cleaned, a can of fresh petrol, much Redex being used, and turning the engine with the starting handle.  All to no avail!  The poor car had to be towed ignominiously down a country lane before it finally started.   That day we had to use a 12-volt battery standing on a running board because the two 6-volt batteries had gone flat over the years.   Later, the garage in Welshpool recharged the car’s batteries, which were the original ones, at a cost of 12/6d (or 62½p in today’s money!).   Subsequently both batteries were replaced with new ones; one of the original batteries from 1937 was quite dead but the other was used on a friend’s tractor in Mid-Wales for several years afterwards.

It was quite common in the 60s to buy ‘an old runner’ for very little money and I bought the car for £5 which was about the going rate in those days.  How times have changed!    After I bought the car, the old lady gave me very explicit instructions as to what had to be done each day before starting the car.  In particular, the radiator had to be filled with warm water which then had to be drained off at the end of the journey.   Another instruction was to keep the leather seats aired throughout the Winter by using hot-water bottles as she used to.    All this was done from a house with no running water and electricity.   

My last memories of Harriet Lloyd-Jones was when I visited her in the Cottage Hospital in Welshpool probably in the late 1960s;  she lay there, a tiny lady with the most beautiful blue eyes and white hair, but she wasn’t able to see her old car which I had parked outside her window. I promised her that I would look after the old Austin.  She died shortly afterwards.

After I bought the Austin, the car was in daily use for nearly thirteen years.   She made several trips up to Scotland and on to the Scottish islands.   In all those years I had only three major breakdowns - once, when the crankshaft broke, and twice when I had been  driving the car too fast and the engine suffered from valve-bounce when the valve pins came out!   I recall a journey up to Durham University in the 70s with two bank colleagues and all our luggage in the Austin.  The car was ‘sailing along’ the A1 with the speedometer showing 72 mph!   Great fun!  The car was enjoying the journey too!

Driving the Austin during those years was tremendous fun - the car drove well and was very comfortable.   In many ways it drove like a modern Mini and, by tweaking the brake adjusters regularly, its breaking powers were as sharp as any car on the roads.  

Many people in Welshpool remembered the car from over the years and indeed so many regularly waved to me in Montgomeryshire and Shropshire that I felt my arm was permanently in the air!    It was quite a common occurrence for someone to wave me down in a village and offer me a brand new spare part which they had retrieved from some dark corner or attic.

Shortly after acquiring the Austin in 1966, I discovered that after cleaning the brass windscreen winding chain, the windscreen actually wound open until it was almost horizontal.    It was a wonderful way to drive in hot weather with the windscreen, sunroof and windows all fully open although I wonder now how I never got hit in the face by flying stones.   In foggy Winter weather the opening windscreen was a real asset because I could see further and hear better - even if passengers were not always so appreciative!  

iii.

I recall a February drive from Chester to Anglesey one year in a fierce snow blizzard to attend a vintage and veteran car rally.  It was probably just as well that I drove there on my own as the windscreen was wide open for the whole journey and there was much snow inside the back of the car by the time I arrived there.   Happy days! 

We used the Austin as our wedding car in June, 1971.

Early in the 1970s, Lloyds Bank sent me on a course to its regional Overseas Branch, then in Liverpool.    Although my father had worked in Liverpool many years before, I didn’t know the place well and certainly didn’t know anyone in the Bank there.   One day I was talking to a Bill Osborne from Birkenhead who worked in the Overseas Branch and I recall asking him about some foreign business we used to do for a corporate customer down in Welshpool.    Surprised at the coincidence, he told me that he and his brothers had been evacuated during the war to Welshpool.  

“In fact,” he said, “you wouldn’t know it, but we stayed at a tiny place outside Welshpool called Maesmawr.”   

In the 1960s, Maesmawr was little more than Maesmawr Hall, a derelict smithy, and The Cottage.  

“That’s strange.” I said to Bill “That’s where my old car comes from!”

He just looked at me and quietly said “EP6915?”  I was absolutely flabbergasted and almost fell off the stool!

It transpired that Bill and his two brothers had been evacuated to Maesmawr in September, 1939 and had stayed at the Cottage for some four-and-a-half years with all three sharing a double bed.  The car, of course, was still quite new and Bill confirmed that Mrs. Lloyd-Jones generally only used the car once a week.  However, once a year as a treat for the brothers, she would have saved up sufficient petrol coupons to take them over  Plynlimon for a day’s outing to Aberystwyth and then to Borth for a swim.   “Coming back at night” said Bill “it was often cold and we put a brown rug over our bare knees to keep our legs warm.”    

Today, all these years later, I still have that same brown rug with the Austin!

By the end of 1979 I was busy making arrangements for joining the Directing Staff of Operation Drake in Indonesia for which the bank had exceptionally given me leave of absence.  The Austin had had to be laid up in a garage and for a few months she didn’t feature high in my list of priorities.   Later the following year, after I had returned to the U.K. and had worked for a spell in the expedition’s operations centre in the Old War Office, I decided that I did not want to resume my banking career.   Money was short at that time and eventually - and with great sadness - I recognised the need to sell the Austin.  

Fortunately (or unfortunately!) a friend in North Wales bought the car from me.  He kept it standing outdoors for a several years before eventually crating it and putting it into store.

iv.

The car’s condition had deteriorated very badly through standing outdoors and sadly he never found the time to put her back on the road again.  It will take much money (which I do not have at present), much work and loving care before the old Austin can be restored and running once more. 

It is my dearest wish to be able to own EP 6915 again and have her in working order one day. 

©Christopher M. Owen,

November, 2000.

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Updates.

The Austin came back home to me in the Summer of 2002 but is languishing in an extremely sorry state in my garage in Chester. A small start on restoration – the screw-on radiator cap had blackened over the years but it is solid brass.  It’s now gleaming!   Seriously, and being realistic however, it will probably be a few years before I can get a restoration started. A restoration will cost considerably more than the car will ever be worth in monetary terms (but I will have a reliable and safe car once again – with all the joys of driving a ‘real’ car!).   Meanwhile, she languishes in a shippon on a farm outside Chester just awaiting that day ……

June, 2007.

2014.

Up until now not much has happened about the Austin other than buying new running boards, etc.  However, at last I have bitten the bullet and a full restoration has started in February, 2014.  The work will be carried out by a firm of excellent restorers near Knutsford in Cheshire.  It will take many months and it will cost more than the car will ever be ‘worth’ in monetary terms (only lovers of vintage motoring will understand!) but it will give me a very sound, practical car highly suitable for everyday use.  It has to be done – I had promised Harriett Lloyd-Jones, its original owner,that I would look after the car.  So now, after many years, my promise will be fulfilled in the not-too-distant future!   The old Austin will be good for another 60 years or more, and I hope one day my grandson will look forward to taking her over when I have been recycled!   

At last, there is every chance that she will be well on the road in time to celebrate her 80th birthday!   I am even dreaming of driving her to China one day!  The car will cope well with the journey – but as a friend has pointed out, my carcass might not make it!  Ah well, I still think it’s worth a try!!  We try to make our dreams come true ……….

©Christopher M. Owen. 2014.

cont……

v.

The End of the Road: The End of the Dream?

February, 2015.

This month has brought my dream of over 35 years to an end.  Shortly before last Christmas I was told I would be looking at a total restoration cost of around £35k to finish the car.  That was a huge shock as I had thought the restoration would have cost much less than that figure.  I gulped at that new figure knowing that was all the capital I had.  I would be ‘Spending the Kids’ Inheritance’!!   Nevertheless I still had hopes for the project and hoped my children would be forgiving when I surprised them with the restored Austin on the road!

The restorers have done a wonderful job but the costs have been horrendous and even they seem to have completely underestimated them.  Earlier this year I was given another shock - a cost projection indicated the final costs to be around £60k.  The car’s bodywork and chassis have been completely rebuilt and painted but the car is still far from complete.  She still needs to be rewired (new wiring loom, etc.), instruments to be refitted, headlining and the whole interior to be done, rechroming of bumpers, etc., wheels to be shot-blasted and five new tyres (and inner tubes!) ...... and the engine and gearbox to be rebuilt.

I am now left with a half-restored car, my capital entirely depleted, and no means of completing the restoration.  I fear that my family will have me sectioned when they find out!   All I can think of doing is to try to find some corporate sponsorship ..…… but then what could I offer in return?  Restoring old cars is never done for financial gain but rather for the love of the old vehicles, their history and a desire to preserve them for another generation to enjoy.  

My dream of driving her again with large roof and windscreen wide open with the sunshine on my face and the wind in my (thinning!) hair has vanished.  For the foreseeable future, my cherished dream has turned into a nightmare.  

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August, 2015.

Following publication of a blog about my old Austin and its history, by Start Rescue (a breakdown insurance company) earlier last year, Trevor Farrington received an e-mail from a Bernard Griffiths wanting to be put in touch with me as his father was going to be 90 in August.  I was intrigued!  Had the old gentleman once owned an Austin Ten?  Did his family want to give him a ride in an Austin again as a birthday treat?  I could only reply that if this was the case, sadly I could not help but there were members in the Austin Ten Drivers’ Club who would only be too happy to help.

Back came a long reply . . . . . from California!  Bernie Griffiths has lived and worked in California since the mid 80s.  I was still puzzled as to why he was writing and then came another shock . . . . he is the great nephew of Mrs. Harriet Lloyd-Jones of Maesmawr, near Welshpool, who had bought the Austin new in 1937!   Such an astonishing and extraordinary coincidence!

Bernie has told me more about Mrs. Lloyd-Jones; she died in 1970 having been widowed for 50 years.  Bernie remembers he and his brother visiting her in the 60s and being allowed to play in the car which was sitting in the stable. 

This is yet another important link to the history of the Austin.  Now, even more than ever, I realise that with such a history I just could never part with the car.  I feel that the Austin is meant to be restored and loved again . . . somehow.

A Way Forward?

I am retired now (but still having to work) and cannot afford to raise the money needed to finish the car’s restoration.  Whilst the biggest part of the restoration – the chassis and bodywork – has been finished, the car is still an empty shell.  When the rear axle was stripped down towards the end of 2015, it was discovered that some internal parts had been damaged by a garage in the early 70s.  No new spares were available but that month, by sheer coincidence, an advert had been placed in the Austin Ten Drivers’ Club magazine by a retired farmer in Norfolk who was selling a 1936 Cambridge axle – identical to mine.  He had ingeniously converted the axle into a fine seed and fertiliser spreader for use on his farm (and winning a medal for it at the Royal Norfolk Show in 1966). 

She still needs to be rewired (new wiring loom, etc.), new side and rear lights to be purchased, dashboard and instruments to be checked and refitted, the dynamo and other electrical parts being checked/rebuilt, new headlining and the whole interior trim and seating to be done, re-chroming of some parts including the headlights and front and rear bumpers, the engine and gearbox to be rebuilt, and the wheels to be shot-blasted and painted, and five new tyres (and inner tubes!) to be purchased.  So, sadly, much work still to be done.

There are many within the Austin Ten Drivers’ Club with the necessary skills but I feel I could not approach any individual for help as I would be unable even to pay for parts and materials - and far less pay anyone for their time and skills.

At present all I can think of is trying to find corporate sponsorship, possibly through a company or firm with a knowledge of, or interest in, historic vehicles . …… but then what could I offer in return?  I just don’t know.

In an ideal world and if I could source financial sponsorship, it would be lovely to return the old car to Trevor Farrington and his team for them to complete the project which they have so lovingly worked on.  Not only has Trevor personally taken a keen interest in the Austin, the work they have all done has been absolutely superb.  They, too, have been looking forward to completing the project and finally seeing the car back on the road after so many years.  I couldn’t have found a better restoration company to bring the old car back to life.

Update – February, 2016.

I had another surprise recently.  Bernie is now most kindly building a website detailing the Austin’s history with photographs of its pre-restoration state through to its present condition – with the restoration of its chassis and now gleaming bodyshell.  He hopes that this will help me in my quest for possible sponsorship to finish the car’s restoration.  A lovely gesture and one that I hope to take up and will gladly use in the months ahead.

Restoring old cars is never done for financial gain but rather for the love of the old vehicles, their history and a desire to use and preserve them for another generation to enjoy.  

Hopefully, the old Austin’s history will not stop here but will continue over the years ahead.

The Austin will be 80 on the 4th June, 2017 and I had hoped she would have been back on the road in time to celebrate her birthday.  Sadly, her birthday celebrations will have to be put on hold unless I can attract commercial sponsorship to finish the restoration . . . . .   Do you know of any company that might be able to help?

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PS.  To watch a short video of the car’s original owner’s nephew (90 years old) seeing the car for the first time in over 50 years in May, 2016, please use this link -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOQA1DOkzTc&feature=youtu.be

©Christopher M. Owen, 2016.