Chauffeured in his 1934 Bedford, a friend and I recently drove to a collector of vintage cars which he rebuilds and reconditions as well as collecting vintage paraphernalia from years past. It was a private affair near Appledore. The Bedford lorry was used in the past to help on a farm.
The Morgan motor company is a family run business in Malvern Link, Worcestershire, which started in 1909/10, initially with a design of a three wheeler model until 1936 when the four-wheel production began. There is a visitors’ centre and museum featuring exhibits about the company’s history from Edwardian times until the present, and displays of automobiles. For example, originally La France had been a fire engine. It was built in 1914 and changed the face of fire fighting, being capable of pumping out 800 gallons a minute rather than the less effective horse-drawn fire engines before.
The afternoon was spent mooching around and admiring other vintage cars arriving. The star of the show was the collection in the large garage housing six cars which had been restored to their former glory; one, I was told, being 100 years old and from the USA. They were immaculate, beautiful and ready to be taken out for a run.
There was also an amazing collection of fascinating items, a mini old petrol station, which was in fact a whisky dispenser. One would not believe just how many different petrol cans existed, wonderfully carved screwdrivers, car lamps, posters and much more.
A few hours wasn’t enough to take it all in. In a way it seems that through modernisation we have lost something that we now admire again. Possibly after another century a new generation will do the same, or laugh when looking back at the phones and digital paraphernalia we use now which will have changed dramatically as technology races ahead.
Photos: Heidi Foster