Celebrating the new Lockdown

[Mike Costigan]

Does the girl on the bonnet have Pratt's Spirit on her wings?

I think so; I've been trying to puzzle out what the '..irit' was, I missed the Pratts side completely!

[Steve kay]

Ah yes, Trevor Howard is about to burst out of that front door!

[Bob Culver]

If I could find a trio as uninhibited as those I would let them sit on my bonnet too. Tthe tyres look old style , but then Imy everday "modern" has had 40 year old tyres on several occasions.
Did girls show that much underarm pre 60s? (Sadly, not the ones I knew)
Has an incontinent horse or car just been along the street?

[Mike Costigan]

This photo will ring a distant bell in many old A7 lags like myself. I seem to recall that it was published somewhere years ago, perhaps in a Club, A7CA or other book or publication. Afraid I can’t add anything else but maybe someone else recalls the photograph being published, maybe with more detail.

I, too, had seen it somewhere before, but couldn't think where; I've found it - in the Profile Publication on the Austin Seven.

The caption reads:

The Austin Seven was a 'natural' for publicity photos. The girls enter into the spirit of the thing in November 1923, the spirit in question being Pratt's High Test Motor Spirit, predecessor of Esso,

[Parazine]

November? They must have been cold......

[Chris Garner]

Met. and Air Ministry records for November 1923 show that it was a particularly cold month with prolonged frost but with sunny days. Young people don't mind the cold, not like us old 'uns!
I remember as part of a Rag event pulling a chariot, which in fact was a dustbin on wheels, from Leeds to Nottingham... part of the journey being in snow. Mad!

[Steve kay]

Chris, was the chariot pulled by humans or products of Longbridge? Anyway, you did not have to share that with us, and we promise not to tell anyone else. A friend has just asked, did the chariot have blades attached to the hubs, and were the girls steering it plastered with woad, or just so cold that they were blue in the face?

[Chris Garner]

Steve, 
I'm sure no one is going to be interested in this but for the record the "race " consisted of teams from various faculties. Design of the chariot was left to each team. We chose a dustbin on two pram wheels, occupied by a lady student and pulled by four guys. Our team consisted of several ladies and men. Our support vehicle was a Bedford CA van. It was cold, so much so, that a charioteer from one team suffered hypothermia and had to be hospitalised! It was a two day slog, staying overnight in a very cold hall in Chesterfield, in fact so cold I was forced to share a sleeping bag with one of the lady charioteers. Amazing what one has to do for charity.

[Tony Griffiths]

This photo will ring a distant bell in many old A7 lags like myself. I seem to recall that it was published somewhere years ago, perhaps in a Club, A7CA or other book or publication. Afraid I can’t add anything else but maybe someone else recalls the photograph being published, maybe with more detail.

I, too, had seen it somewhere before, but couldn't think where; I've found it - in the Profile Publication on the Austin Seven.

The caption reads:

The Austin Seven was a 'natural' for publicity photos. The girls enter into the spirit of the thing in November 1923, the spirit in question being Pratt's High Test Motor Spirit, predecessor of Esso,

Well remembered. Unfortunately, the picture in the profile is heavily pixilated and does not, as shown below scanned at 2400 d.p.i. and degaussed, reproduce at all well. The original found online must have been from a photograph.

[Robin Boyce]

If it helps -  Genuine photo, my mother and friends during Birmingham University Rag Week 1925.