Frederick Wilfred, Street photography, London 1957-1962

[Bob Culver]

End of life Sevens were often as the photo. I briefly ran one and dismantled two. In the early 60s I attended a Wellington Council 6 monthly auction of abandoned cars.  About 30 of. More or less intact old 1920s Essex and the like would fetch L20, a good weekly wage, and Ford 10s twice as much. (A the times cars were kept on the roads here far longer than UK)
The scrap yards today, including the most basic Pik A Part are full of cars often with no obvious serious deterioration. A minor prang is the end for most, esp if of the air bag era. Any mechanical or worse electical or electronic problem is the end because it is so expensive to fathom and access to fix, assuming you can find someoene who can. It all seems very wasteful , even tragic to the likes of me who has eked a lifetime of motoring from seriously outdated cars.

[Dave Mann]

Those photographs bring back memories, I just love those teddy bear indicators on the Seven.

[Austin in the Shed]

I've always thought that a photograph catches a moment in time that is priceless.
I have one of a great aunt standing next to my RN one day when she visited my mother who was recovering from illness, A photograph her son cherished too.
Another one for me was at Stanford Hall rally one year.I noticed  Bert Hadley walking round,I struck up a conversation with him and we spoke for what seemed like an hour about his motoring exploits. I asked him for a photo next to my car,Now framed on the wall in my workshop.

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End of life Sevens were often as the photo. I briefly ran one and dismantled two. In the early 60s I attended a Wellington Council 6 monthly auction of abandoned cars.  About 30 of. More or less intact old 1920s Essex and the like would fetch L20, a good weekly wage, and Ford 10s twice as much. (A the times cars were kept on the roads here far longer than UK)
The scrap yards today, including the most basic Pik A Part are full of cars often with no obvious serious deterioration. A minor prang is the end for most, esp if of the air bag era. Any mechanical or worse electical or electronic problem is the end because it is so expensive to fathom and access to fix, assuming you can find someoene who can. It all seems very wasteful , even tragic to the likes of me who has eked a lifetime of motoring from seriously outdated cars.

Last year I went past one of the breakers yards near Nottingham,one of the ones where they stack the cars on racks,It amazed me most of the cars  I could see were 2008,9 and 10 models.

[Bob Culver]

While on the subject, the Ford 8Y is the modern looking model which came out in 1932 for UK L120 and only L100 in 1936,  matching then significantly undercutting Sevens. Brakes and steering have poor reputation but so do others. And it could reach 57 mph. Road tests give max in intermediate 2nd gear as 44 mph, over 5500 rpm according my calcs! It is surprising that the Seven sold against them, although Ford had the Model T stigma to live down, and loyalty to UK firms  then counted for something. I suppose to those brought up on early Sevens it seemd rather large. Apparently extensively  designed by Henry Ford  personally, and the styling the basis of early V8s, not the reverse as usually assumed.

[Robert Leigh]

The mention of Pimlico reminds me of my first car purchase. In 1959 my father gave me £10 on Ipswich station when I left to start work in London next day. He knew I would not get paid for 2 weeks. The following evening I went to Pimlico to meet a friend for a drink. We went to his nearest pub, and outside was a 1932 RP saloon with £5 chalked on the windscreen, so we went inside, found the seller, and I did the deal which included tax to the end of the month. In those days it was based on the calender and could be done for 3 months. It was 2 weeks later that I told my father I had spent half his gift on a car, having driven it to Woodbridge in Suffolk. With various bits of maintenance that car lasted me nearly three years and 30,000 miles until the CWP gave up and I stupidly scrapped it, because it was cheaper to buy a running Ruby for £5 than the cost of the repair.
Robert Leigh

[Nick Salmon]

Lovely story Robert.