Here are some pictures of the track in the 1970s. I took these during the holiday fortnight, when me and a friend went into the building when it was empty ...
Recently in Coventry I happened to pass the old Banner Lane factory. It has now been demolished. It was built at the outbreak of the Second World War, as a ...
It’s Christmas Eve, 1906. Humber have long had a reputation for their cycles, being pioneers in the field and being renowned for their quality. Having moved into automobile manufacture in ...
My earliest memory of Rootes was the annual visit to the pantomime at the Coventry Hippodrome with the other kids of Rootes workers. We all got a Christmas stocking of ...
A Rootes product, but ironically never built in Rootes territory in Coventry and Warwickshire, the Imp was built at a new factory in Linwood, in Scotland. Nonetheless, Rootes was a ...
When I first went there I went from GEC, and I arrived there in my Volkswagen Beetle, and the security man wouldn’t let me take it in there! He said ...
Naturally, the changing industrial landscape of Coventry and Warwickshire means there are a number of car manufacturers who have fallen by the wayside over the years. This article sketches the ...
When researching the Jensen brothers, I discovered that their second design, after the one based on the Austin Seven, used a Standard 9 chassis and running gear. This was later ...
When Wolston Business Park was developed by Wimpey for housing, an interesting set of buildings was demolished. The main building on the site was originally a large artificial silk factory, ...
I got my first vehicle when I was about five – an Austin J40 pedal. I loved its cream steering wheel with chrome spokes (oh so very 50s!) and that ...
Home thoughts from abroad?
Well from the Isle of Wight actually and unlike the poem by Robert Browning, it was September rather than April, but apart from that……..
Anyway, it was in ...
Interviews with John Gardner on preparing engines for a record breaker, Bill Price on working in the BMC competitions department, Paul Stanforth on conditions in the Le Mans pit, John ...
Interviews with Gordon Barton on the acoustics at the Coten End site, Paul Stanforth on the conditions in the experimental building and modifying a Healey 3000 to form the Healey ...
The postman’s just been, and in among them is a pile of model cars – I really must stop browsing auction sites! In this set, however, is an Alvis TD21 ...
Interviews with John Gardner, Gordon Barton, Geoffrey Shepherd and Terry Westwood. They talk about working at the Cape Works site, the hardships of metalworking and visits from American airmen.
John Gardner ...
Interviews with John Gardner on the designs for the Healey 100, Geoffrey Shepherd on getting the order for the big Healeys and David Unitt on driving a big Healey.
John Gardner ...
Interviews with John Gardner, Terry Westwood, John Harris, Paul Hunt, Paul Stanforth and Roger Beard on working the Geoff and Brian Healey.
John Gardner had various jobs at the Cape Works ...
Interview with Paul Stanforth on the partnership with Jensen and Tony Marshall on what went wrong with the Jensen Healey.
Paul Stanforth was an apprentice mechanic and part of Healey Le ...
Interviews with John Gardner on Donald Healey as a designer and setting up his own company and with Tony Marshall talking about Donald Healey’s connections with Fiat.
John Gardner had various ...
Interviews with Gordon Barton and Brian Marsh on the development of the headlights on the Sprite and Nick Maltby on the introduction of the Sprite Mark 1.
Gordon Barton worked in ...
An interview with Geoffrey Shepherd on making chassis for Nash Healeys.
Geoffrey Shepherd was a mechanical assembler at the Cape Works
Transcript
Geoffrey Shepherd: …we was doing them things for Tickford, we were ...
