Lot Ended
Description
Ex-Longbridge employee car; superbly original and in delightful
condition; 7,000 miles in the last 50 years; around 28,400 miles from new;
driven to the sale; massive history file; just lovely
It's always a
pleasure to find a car with loads of history and this nicely original
Austin 8 certainly has that.
Mr AJW Jones, it's first owner, worked
in the Gauge Room at Longbridge. A direct sale to a company employee, the
original notification that the car was complete is on file, with a projected
collection date of 21st October 1946.
A further note states
'The Austin Motor Co Ltd thanks you for your remittance and encloses
receipt herewith. The Company hope to be favoured with your further commands and
recommendations'. A different time!
The company issued the registration
book for GOM 141 and the Co-Operative Insurance Society looked after his
insurance.
The car passed from Mr Jones to his wife and thence
to his daughter, the car remaining in her care until 1993 - a period of 47 years
of single family ownership, during which time all MOTs were kept on file. The
first was issued in 1960 - when the MOT test was introduced, although the
Certificates didn't start to record the mileage until 1969 by which time the
odometer was showing 19,498 miles.
We don't have any documentary
evidence to tell us what it had done before that, but its condition suggests
that this may well be correct. It was only covering a few miles each year
from then on, until it was sold to its new owner, a local gentleman, by which
time it had covered some 25,350 miles.
Miss Jones was a stickler for
detail, making sure the car was regularly serviced and keeping the invoices to
prove. By 1956 she had taken the car on from her mother and entrusted SJ Mabey
of Erdington to look after it. No fewer than 17 service invoices are on file,
right up to 1990, listing exactly what was done to the car - work which
consisted of general care and maintenance rather than for restoration. We are
told that the Jones family used to oil the underside every year, which would
help explain its fine original condition.
It's last MOT took place in
2012, showing a mileage of 28,228 miles. The odometer now reads 28,346 miles,
although we note that the speedometer is not recording so we cannot confirm its
actual total, although it hasn't seen much use during the period so won't be
radically different.
It has gone through several owners since then, it's
most recent acquiring it from a local Mayor, who enjoyed taking it to local
shows masquerading as Dad's Army's Captain Mainwaring!
The car remains in
lovely original condition, including the upholstery, the rear seats looking
virtually unused. Other original features include the wind-out windscreen,
sunroof, working rear roller-blind, fully operational semaphore indicators,
original number plates - the rear plate dropping down so the boot lid can hold
large suitcases.
Complete with its original handbook, this ex-works
Austin is the proverbial 'time-warp' and is as nice an example as you could wish
to find.
Contact matthew.parkin@brightwells.com