The 'post' arrives at last!

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Now this IS the post that I have been trying

to publish for days.

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The reason it has taken so long to appear,

apart from being sidetracked onto other topics,

is because I been scouring the web for pictures of Austin cars.

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Amongst my boxes of old photos was this.

This is my Great Grandfather with his nice new Austin.

In the front with him, is Great Gran with

my great aunties Alice, Daisy and Doreen in the back.

But what is the car?

Well my Dad always told me it was an Austin 18,

and that GGD had picked it up new from the works

at Longbridge.

Web searches don't come up with photos of such a model.

Only Austin 7, Austin 12 & Austin 20.

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It's obviously not an Austin 7,

but could be either of the others.

My dear friend Angus came to the rescue

after finding a site in New Zealand with lots of pictures.

He reckons it's probably a 12 hp Clifton tourer.

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Here's a restored Austin looking very similar.

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Is there a connection between :-

"Little Missenden",

"Helen",

"Australia",

and

"Austin cars"?

Read on,

Herbert Austin.

Born Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England, 8 November 1866

The son of a farmer, he was born in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, but the family moved to Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham, Yorkshire in 1870. The Missenden farmhouse is still there alongside the main road rather than in the village, which is tucked away off the main road to Wendover and Aylesbury.

I have driven by hundreds of times and it is, I‘m afraid, nothing special except for its famous connection with Herbert Austin.

In 1884 Herbert emigrated to Australia, with an uncle, on his mother's side, who lived in Melbourne, Australia.

He went to Art School in Melbourne to develop his skills in technical drawing, and it was here, in Melbourne that he met and married his wife Helen.

He worked for quite a number of different firms but ended up joining the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company, founded in 1887 in Sydney.

In 1893 he returned to England with Frederick Wolseley to set up the company in Birmingham. Frederick resigned in 1894 and Austin became manager.

Later in 1905, Austin raised capital of £37,000 and took over an old print works at Longbridge (then) just outside Birmingham to manufacture ‘Austin cars‘.

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The Austin car works at Longbridge was later to become one of the greatest car manufacturers in the world.

I believe most of it has now been demolished. Sad really.

He died at Lickey Grange, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, 23 May 1941

My Grandfather worked at Longbridge for most of his life,

and as an employee, was entitled to a discount on a new car.

It was still a huge amount to find, but in the late fifties,

mustered up enough for an 'A40 Devon',

similar to the one below.

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Slight snag!

He couldn't drive.

My Gran, or Nan as we called her, came to the rescue

and did all the driving.

In 'early days' you didn't need to take a test,

you just applied for a licence.

Whether she had taken a test or not, I don't know.

What I do remember though, was that the registration

number was KOP 716.

I can still remember that after 50 odd years.

There were more photos of more cars.

Perhaps another time.

An afterthought.

Actually Grandad could drive and did have a licence,

but he had Parkinsons at that time and was a bit shakey.

Nan felt safer behind the wheel and drove on L plates

with Pop sitting along side.

It was just as well he was never required to take the wheel.

They were the days!

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