V-E-V Miscellany, October 1969, October 1969

Ken Revis B.M.C. Publicity Manager, has presented a 1932 chromium-plated Morris Minor chassis, as it appeared Railton saloon, with complete engine, wheels, etc., is reported in a breaker’s yard and possibly saveable. In another yard, in Northumberland, a reader has seen several Rolls-Royce and Derby Bentley chassis, a sorry Austin truck an o.h.c. Singer chassis, and a large Lanchester chassis, together with a number of post-vintage Armstrong Siddeleys, also a large vintage Daimler radiator. Letters can be forwarded.

R.A.F Topcliffe is holding its Open Day on October 11th in aid of local charities and will include a parade and elegance contest for veteran and vintage cars and commercial vehicles. Entry fee is 1s. per person, prizes to be given, experienced judges guaranteed and a hangar available if the weather is wet. Details from Flt-Lt. C. H. Lansdell, R.A.F. Topcliffe, Thirsk, Yorks. M. H. Tebbett, 39 Chamberlain Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham 13, has a 1930 Austin Seven Mulliner saloon, knows of at least five others and five “possibles” and has been in touch with what is left of the Mulliner works. He want to form a register of Mulliner-bodied Austin Sevens, if owners will contact him. While we refrain from re-opening the long correspondence about how many 1914 T.T. Humbers may have been built, it is interesting that a reader has recalled an advertisement which appeared in The Autocar on January 16th 1915, offering for sale Tuck’s Humber, overhauled after the race, with six new tyres and wheels at “a special bargain price of £495”. The vendors were Henry Garner Ltd., Moseley Motor Works, Birmingham, and the significant thing is that they said of the car that it would be “ideal for hill-climbing or despatch work”, suggesting that either it had been used for despatch work, like the Humber rumoured to have disappeared in France during the war, or that this was prompted because another of these cars was known to be there.

W. H. Bence died recently, aged 77. He was Chairman of Jones and Bence Ltd., the 180-year-old Kingswood firm, and became associated with vehicle building around 1919, when his father secured one of the first Bristol-area Ford agencies. W. J. Bence and Son used to put 14-seater ‘bus bodies on Model-T chassis, operating them in the Hanham, Kingswood and Bitton areas until Bristol Tramways took over in 1930. Mr. Bence was also connected with the Avon car and with the three-wheeler Douglas Hardy vans of the between-wars years.

On a farm in Rhodesia a large motor lorry, circa 1917, with Rolls-Royce shape radiator and solid tyres is reported; it is apparently a Minominee and any information would be appreciated. White ants have apparently destroyed all the woodwork but renovation may be possible. Morris’s of Shrewsbury, makers of lubricants and associated products, are celebrating their centenary this year and have issued a series of cards about the Company, one of which depicts an S4 Sentinel steam waggon and trailer they had in service between 1924 and 1939. We feel certain it was lubricated with Morris’s genuine “Sentinel” oils, which they have made since 1919!

A reader who is working on a history of Martinsyde motorcycles is anxious to locate a photograph of one of the Martinsydes which were prepared for a 200-Mile Race and one of which was ridden at Brooklands in 1924-25 by J. W. Beare after the manufacturers had gone into liquidation. Mr. Beare, now resident in Canada, has lost his picture of this machine in racing trim. Can anyone help?