Captain Tom Moore: Veteran's motorbike found by Bradford museum

source - Telegraph & Argus

Captain Tom Moore: Veteran's motorbike found by Bradford museum

By far and away on of the best things to come out of the coronavirus crisis and the story that just keeps on giving is that of the emergence of centenarian Captain Sir Tom Moore, whose incredible fund-raising 100 laps of his garden resulted in a staggering total donation of £33m for the NHS.  For this heroically altruistic effort he was rightly honoured with a knighthood, the Yorkshire Regiment Medal (as well as the rank of Honorary Colonel of Army Foundation College), the Freedom of Keighley (his home town) and of London, Honorary [Life] Membership of the England Cricket team and the M.C.C., a birthday flypast by the BBMF's Spitfire & Hurricane - not to mention having several trains, buses, boats and even animals named after him.  On top of all that he also became the oldest person to have a UK Number One single with a cover version of You'll Never Walk Alone sung with Michael Ball.  The man once even appeared on Blankety Blank, for heaven's sake!



This is before one even takes into account his military service during World War Two in the Burma Campaign, one of the harshest theatres of the war, where he served in Royal Armoured Corps and survived getting Dengue fever.  Truly his has been a remarkably well-lived life and never was the phrase "cometh the hour, cometh the man" more apposite - clearly even approaching 100 years old he still had his mark to make.

source - KentOnline

Motorbike once ridden competitively by Captain Tom discovered in Bradford museum collection 

One of the many photographs brought out to show his varied life (soon to be in print as an autobiography) shows him - properly suited and moustached, of course - astride a vintage 1920s motorcycle which he used to indulge in one of his favourite hobbies when a young man in the 1950s, that of competitive club racing.  Judging by the trophies he's holding he was rather good at it too!

Captain Tom's motorbike in pride of place at museum

Now comes the marvellous news that this same motorbike has been discovered sitting in a Bradford museum, having been loaned to its collection by the son of a former owner.  The history of the motorcycle and in particular its manufacturer - the locally-based Scott Motorcycle Company - is as equally fascinating as to how to came to pass through Captain Tom's ownership, on to another enthusiast and thus to his son before eventually coming back to prominence in this wonderfully serendipitous manner.  One can well understand the obvious pride displayed by the Bradford Industrial Museum in now being able to update its history to include ownership by a local and national hero and I'm sure it will now take pride of place in its collection, as part of the endlessly rewarding story of one man's remarkable life.

Bertie in the Middle East: online showing for first royal tour photographs

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Bertie in the Middle East: online showing for first royal tour photographs

Museums, art galleries, heritage sites and the like are regrettably having a tough time of things at the moment, with lock-down having seriously impacted many excellent institutions.  Despite this risk to their very existence the vast majority seem to have stepped up to the crease with remarkable initiative, with some superb online curatorial videos and similar displays available on YouTube and the like.  The exhibition mentioned in this article, although photographic rather than audiovisual in nature, is no less fascinating featuring as it does the first photographic record of a royal tour of the Middle East.

This was Edward, the Prince of Wales' (later to become King Edward VII) 1862 trip to Greece, the then Ottoman Empire, the Holy Land and finally to Egypt - partly designed to bolster Britain's relations with those countries and but also it seems to deflect attention from one of Bertie's many flings with a female member of the British theatre scene(!).  In a very modern and what would nowadays be called a "damage-limitation exercise", the experienced and highly-respected photographer Francis Bedford was sent along as one of the party to document the tour in the new medium of photography.

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Now thanks to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts the photos from that tour are available to view online as part of its Sights of Wonder exhibition.  Originally intended to be a physical display at the Institute's Birmingham location it has been swiftly and expertly switched to a web-based digital exhibit and jolly well done it is too.  Not only does it showcase Bedford's remarkable pictures of historic sites that had previously only been seen (if at all) as paintings or drawings, but it also includes excerpts from Edward's personal diary and contemporary news reports - all of which add to the overall fascination immeasurably.

Everyone involved is worthy of congratulation on creating such an interesting and absorbing exhibit during these difficult times and I'm particularly pleased to note the involvement of some University of Birmingham history students - I hope this will benefit and inspire them to future endeavours in preserving these important aspects of our history.  In the meantime although it is heartening to see how well some museums are adapting to the ongoing situation there are of course many that are still closed and facing an uncertain future.  I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how important it is that we support those institutions that are struggling through these hard times, if only by visiting them again when circumstances are such that they are able to reopen.

Just like buses...

...nothing for ages and then a load come along at once - much like this blog lately!

Hopefully no-one's ever waited nearly a month for a 'bus (although the service round my way does its best to make it a possibility) but I'm certainly sorry - again! - that you've had to wait that long between posts.  Egads, I've been well and truly reminded why I didn't blog when I was last in full-time employment - work certainly does take up your time, doesn't it?  But have no fear, I don't intend to let Eclectic Ephemera gather dust and I absolutely promise you that no more than a month will elapse before new content appears.

In related news you may recall my mentioning the new [online] vintage magazine I have been involved with, In Retrospect.  Well despite a little wobble due to a lack of advertisers that splendid periodical is still very much with us - and soon to launch its first physical issue!  Sadly I won't be able to have something done in time for the inaugural edition (due for publication in about a month's time - watch this space for more news) but I have high hopes to make it into the January issue, fingers crossed!

Now, back to buses!  During the last few busy weeks I was able to get along to the local annual transport and classic car rally, held on the 12th October on Canvey Island and which has featured on this blog several times in previous years.  After last year's [literal] washout when floodwater severely curtailed the event, the rally's good weather fortunes had returned and we were treated to a bright - if slightly nippy - day (precipitating a series of winter colds culminating in a throat infection for your author, but it was worth it!).

Without further ado, here come the pictures:

CPU 979G, a 1969 Bristol VR, conveyed me from the local railway station to the showground; one of the many shuttle buses in use throughout the day ferrying people to and from the station, showground and museum - an excellent service.

Some old favourites from previous years were also again in attendance, including this 1941 Morris Z-Type GPO van and 1934 Morris 10/4 Saloon (below).

1950 AEC Regent III RT

This beautiful 1970 AEC Swift "SM1" caught my eye at the far end of the field; I particularly like the instructions on the front and side - today's buses should have the same I say (plus "Have fare ready" for all those bloody people who root around in their pockets/bag/purse for the money/ticket after they've boarded - can you tell I'm back in commuter mode...?)!

1953 Leyland Tiger

The showground is right next to the sea wall, on the other side of which is the Thames Estuary (on the other side of which is Kent), so at lunchtime I grabbed a bacon sarnie and mug of builders tea (complete in The Sun mug, I'm afraid to say) before taking a stroll along the sea wall.  By great good fortune I was lucky enough to see the SS Waverley steaming homeward-bound after one of its regular day trips on the Whitstable-Southend-Tilbury-London route.  The SS Waverley is the last surviving sea-going paddle steamer, built in 1947 to replace her predecessor which was lost at Dunkirk.  She was saved from the scrapheap in 1975 (sold for one whole pound!) and has since become a tourist pleasure ship on routes around the Thames, the Clyde, the Bristol Channel and the South Coast.  She's certainly a wonderful craft and, with next year being the 40th anniversary of her resurrection, I think a little cruise to London might be called for!

After lunch and that most pleasant surprise it was back to the buses:

1965 Leyland Titan

Then it was on the transport museum proper, whereupon arriving I was delighted to be met with the sight of London buses old and new!  I'd not yet seen the New Bus For London (seriously, they need to come up with a better name) up close and I came away most impressed.

Back in May the local bus operator, First Essex, commemorated 100 years of bus travel in Southend by repainting one of its vehicles in the original cream and red livery of Westcliff-on-sea Motor Services, which served the area until the 1960s.  I was pleased to see it at the museum alongside one of its forebears, a 1939 Bristol K.  Much, much better and more dignified than First's current livery of white, pink and purple I think you'll agree.  Perhaps we should start a petition to get them all repainted!

At my old primary school next to the museum the cars were packed in (a full house this year, so I heard) and undoubtedly the star of the the show for me this year was this 1935 MG N-type.  Lovingly restored over 20 years by its owner it was a testament to his enthusiasm, being in absolutely tip-top condition as far as I could see.  Alas in chatting amiably with the old boy it emerged that his son does not share the same level of interest and it was a shame to hear the sadness with which the chap admitted it.  We can only hope when the time comes it transfers to the hands of another collector (I did jocularly express my own interest, although with the more commonplace J-, P- and T-types fetching £30-40,000 and me still without a licence it would be a long time coming!) but honestly, who couldn't fail to be moved by this?

 

At the other end of the condition scale was this Model A Ford, a newcomer to the show (at least, I hadn't seen it before) which looked almost untouched!

One welcome return this year, though, was this 1930s Riley which had previously appeared as my show star.  Still a joy to behold, in lovely condition complete with period magazines, books and maps on the seats. 

 

To finish here are some close-up shots of the beautiful 1933 Huppmoblie K-321 Cabriolet Roadster, another show regular, over which I (not surprisingly) lingered for some time - even taking the time to explain to a couple of ladies the concept of a dickey seat and how the roof had to be retracted by turning the little handle behind the front seats.

 

Well, that's it from me for now, but I hope to be back in the coming weeks hopefully with some more interesting vintage news (it's been a bit quiet on that front lately, as it often seems to get around the end of the year).  Don't forget as well to be on the lookout for In Retrospect - in paper format! - from the beginning of December.

WW2 plane to be restored to glory in Concorde hangar

 WW2 plane to be restored to glory in Concorde hangar

Yet another worthy - if slightly convoluted - aircraft restoration project is the subject of this interesting article from the B.B.C, featuring a transatlantic variant of a now-rare World War Two British bomber.

The Bristol Blenheim can trace its origins back to 1935 and a Daily Mail-sponsored specification for a high-speed business aircraft.  The Bristol Aeroplane Company responded with the Type 142, which first flew on the 12th April 1935.  Not only did it meet the requirements of Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere as the fastest civilian aeroplane in Europe, it was also found to be considerably faster than any fighter 'plane then in service with the Royal Air Force!  As a result the RAF quickly moved to have Bristol create a fighter-bomber version, which became the Blenheim MkI.

Blenheims consequently formed part of the backbone of both Fighter and Bomber Command in the early years of the war, although even by 1939 they were outclassed by newer fighters like the Spitfire and Messerschmitt 109.  Nevertheless they performed many vital, if now largely forgotten, roles in the first three years of the conflict.  Blenheims were the first British aircraft to cross the German coast following the declaration of war.  They formed part of the Free French Air Force after the fall of France.  During the Battle of Britain they undertook bombing and reconnaissance raids on German airfields, often sustaining high casualties.  When the Blitz began, Blenheims fitted with radar became night-fighters to battle the German bombers.  The aircraft eventually served in several theatres of war including North Africa and the Middle & Far East, over time evolving into new designs including the Beaufort torpedo-bomber and the Beaufighter.  It was also the basis for the aircraft featured here - the Bolingbroke.

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RCAF Bristol Bolingbroke

The Bolingbroke was merely a variant of the Blenheim rather than an evolution - in fact the original Bolingbroke MkI was almost identical to the Blenheim MkIV.  The alterations to the Blenheim design by this stage had attracted the attention of the Royal Canadian Air Force, who were looking for a new aircraft to undertake the maritime patrol role.  Fairchild Canada was awarded the license to build under contract in Quebec and so the Bolingbroke was born.  From 1940-44 Bolingbrokes provided patrol bomber service on the Atlantic & Pacific coasts and were later mainstays of the the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

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Bolingbroke wreck in a Manitoba scrapyard, 2006

After the cessation of hostilities the RAF scrapped its entire fleet of Blenheims.  The RCAF took a slightly different tack, as mentioned, and sold their surplus airframes for scrap - with local farmers taking advantage of the valuable aluminium, fuel and other parts (or, as in this case, for target practice!).  As it turns out this was something of a blessing in disguise for, while there are only 2 or 3 extant examples of original Blenheims left in the world, there are currently thirteen Bolingbrokes - in Belgium, the USA, UK, and Canada - four of which (including this one) are undergoing restoration either to original or Blenheim specification.

The difficulty in restoring such a rare aeroplane is made apparent in the article, but I have no doubt the team at the Bristol Aero Collection will do a good thorough job in bringing Bolingbroke 9048 back to fighting trim.  In the same hanger where Concorde was constructed, no less!  It's splendid to see yet more dedication from aviation enthusiasts and museum volunteers, as well as the sporting assistance of Rolls-Royce; I'm sure 9048 will sit proudly alongside Concorde and the other exhibits at the Collection as a testament to the men who flew Blenheims and Bolingbrokes.

Bomber Command centre to 'echo' Lancaster shape

Bomber Command centre to 'echo' Lancaster shape

Readers may be familiar with the memorial to RAF Bomber Command that was unveiled by HM Queen Elizabeth II in Green Park, London, a couple of years ago.  Until then there had been no official memorial to the bomber crews who died during the Second World War.  Now there is soon to be a second - as well as the first museum devoted to that arm of the RAF - in Lincoln, to further honour the men of Bomber Command.

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Both edifices look to be magnificent.  The monument - to be called the "Spire of Names" - will tower 164ft into the sky and feature the 25,000+ names of every bomber airman from Lincolnshire who perished in the conflict.  Sitting on Lincoln's Canwick Hill it will overlook the nearby Lincoln Cathedral, which was well-known to locally-based bomber pilots as both a navigation aid and a welcome sight upon returning to base.  Recently the Spire project was given an anonymous £750,000 donation, allowing it to go ahead.

As detailed in the main article, the nearby visitor centre has been ingeniously designed to resemble the outline of an Avro Lancaster bomber, that most famous mainstay of RAF bomber squadrons.  It is also set be named The Chadwick Centre, after Avro's chief designer Roy Chadwick.

All this adds up to an excellent and beautiful form of remembrance for all the brave men of the RAF Bomber Command, as well as those at the Avro works and doubtless many more local and national war heroes to boot.  I'm sure it will be a credit to Lincoln and all the airmen who gave their lives in service to their country.

'Unsung' London war bus brought back to life

'Unsung' London war bus brought back to life

With the centenary of the beginning of World War One now only a matter of months away, there will doubtless be many fascinating and worthy projects on the go in addition to those already announced by the Government.  Here's one now, in fact, involving the restoration of a 1914 London omnibus.

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A very special and, today, rare model the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) B-type was in many ways the Routemaster of its day.  Arguably the first mass-produced 'bus it was an advanced machine for its time, able to travel faster even than the speed limit of the time (12mph - the B-type could top 16mph, although apparently 30-35mph was not unheard of!) thanks to its light weight and modern running gear.  Able to seat up to 34 people, including 18 on the top deck's weatherproof canvas-covered seats, over 3,000 B-types were produced; that and the model's reliability allowed for an expansion of routes and the introduction of the night bus with the B-type getting electric lighting inside and out from 1912/13.

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A B-type converted into a pigeon loft for use in
Northern France and Belgium during the Great War, c.1916.

Almost as soon as war broke out in August 1914 up to one-third of the entire B-type fleet was requisitioned for military purposes and shipped over to France (and from there also to other far-flung theatres like Palestine and Greece) - quite a logistical feat if you think about it!  Over the ensuing four years they were pushed far beyond the design's limits - trading smooth London streets for rutted & waterlogged mud tracks, coming under enemy fire, being converted into anti-aircraft gun platforms or carrier pigeon lofts, not to mention providing transport for two-dozen fully-equipped soldiers (the hastily-erected window boards were in fact installed to stop the glass getting broken by the soldiers' guns and packs)!

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Troops in Arras go back for a rest having
taken part in the Battle of Arras, May 1917.

Now only four B-types are known to exist.  B43 "Ole Bill", a 1911 model, served in France until 1919 when like so many it helped to transport soldiers back across the Channel and was bought back by LCOG, shortly afterwards being retired and used as a commemorative vehicle (on the 14th February 1920 it became the first bus to boarded by a monarch, King George V inspecting it as part of the peace celebrations).  It was donated to the Imperial War Museum as long ago as 1970, where it remains to this day.

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B340 resides at the London Transport Museum and it is here that it will soon be joined by the one undergoing recommissioning at the moment.  This latest restoration looks to be the quite the project, having come about through a remarkable series of events.  It will also differ from its companion by being rebuilt to military specification, to honour the memory of the men its type helped transport to and from the front lines. 

An excellent undertaking, then, particularly for the Great War anniversary but also for 2014's Year of the Bus.  I'm glad to see the London Transport Museum taking such effort to bring back to life another of these forgotten buses and in order to commemorate those who took part in such an important date in our history.  It bodes well for the centenary events next year and I look forward more than ever to seeing them (and the B-type bus!).

An imperial airliner - soon to fly again?

Back in March 2012 I did a post about a proposed new supersonic airliner that was essentially a biplane, the design having two sets of wings set one above the other.  Other than this link to an historic aircraft design the article mentioned was more along the lines of the type I used to include in the early days of this blog when I posted about anything and everything that interested me.  To give it the more vintage bent that this blog is now known for, I added a little bit of history regarding the fast biplanes and biplane airliners of the 1930s.  One of these was the Handley Page H.P.42.

The H.P.42 was born out of an Imperial Airways (the ancestor of British Airways) specification of 1928, intended to supplement their existing fleet of 3-engined Armstrong Whitworth Argosy airliners (also mentioned in my earlier post).  Handley Page's winning design was for a giant all-metal biplane with four Brisol Jupiter engines - two on the upper wings and two mounted on the lower wings next to the fuselage.  Two variants were produced - the H.P.42E (for the eastern routes to India and Australia) and the H.P.42W (for western routes to Europe).  The former seated up to 24 with extra baggage room for air mail, the latter 38.  Unlike the Argosy the cockpit was also enclosed - a first for a large airliner.  Imperial Airways felt its passengers valued comfort over speed so despite having around 500bhp per engine, the H.P.42's maximum speed was a sedate 120mph and its cruising speed a mere 100mph.  This led to commentators of the time noting that it was "as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar - and about as fast" and had "built-in headwinds"!  Indeed any substantial headwind encountered by an H.P.42 would invariably lower its cruising speed to 90mph, requiring extra refuelling stops particularly on the long-distance routes.

Handley Page H.P.42 G-AAUD Hanno at Semakh, Palestine, October 1931.
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The aircraft's first flight was just over 83 years ago, on the 14th November 1930.  Clearance for commercial operation was given in May 1931 and the first passenger flight was undertaken on the 11th June 1931, from Croydon to Paris.  Eight H.P.42s were ultimately built and each was given a name,  beginning with 'H', from ancient British and Roman history or Greek mythology (can't see BA doing that today, can you?).  Hence there was Hannibal, Hanno, Hadrian, Horsa, Heracles, Horatius, Helena and Hengist.  For the next nine years they would ply the airways between London, Europe and the furthest reaches of the British Empire - suffering absolutely no serious accidents, an unheard of feat for aircraft of the time.  They were involved in only 4 incidents in their civilian lifetimes.  Hannibal had to force land in a field in Kent when its port lower engine failed, sending debris into the port upper engine.  Landing on two engines only, a tree trunk ripped off the tail and one wing and another engine were also damaged, but there were miraculously no serious injuries.  Horatius was struck by lightning in 1937 resulting in minor damage to one wing and also force-landed in Kent in 1938 causing damage to the undercarriage and one wing.  Hengist was destroyed in a hanger fire in Karachi in 1938 but the aircraft was empty and no lives were lost.

Refuelling Hanno at Samakh, Tiberias, Palestine, October 1931
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The remaining aircraft were all pressed into RAF service on the outbreak of the Second World War.  Sadly none of them survived the conflict (although not for the reasons you might think), all of them apart from Helena being lost within one year.  Hannibal disappeared in mysterious circumstances over the Gulf of Oman on the 1st March 1940 - no sign of the aircraft or its passengers/contents has ever been found.  Horsa was burned beyond repair after a forced landing in Cumberland on the 7th August 1940.  Hanno and Heracles were both destroyed in one fell swoop when they were blown together during a gale at Bristol Airport on the 19th March 1940.  Hadrian was similarly wrecked in a gale at Doncaster Airport on the 6th December 1940.  Horatius had already been written off in another forced landing in Devon on the 7th November 1939.  Helena managed to survive until the end of 1940 but after a particularly hard landing an inspection showed irreparable corrosion had set in and it was scrapped in 1941.

Why am I telling you all this, apart from the fact that it is interesting (at least, I think it is and hope you do to)?  Well, last weekend I received a welcome surprise in the form of a comment on that earlier post from a member of Team Merlin, who it seems are actively undertaking to not only create a museum about Imperial Airways but also to build a full-size replica of the massive H.P.42 airliner!  (They're also based in a beautiful aviation-themed pub in deepest Wiltshire, I note).  I couldn't let such an interesting comment get lost in the archives, so here we are.  Wouldn't it be amazing to see one of these behemoths in the air again?  What a remarkable homage it would be to Imperial Airways' H.P42s and those early days of civil aviation.  Can such a (literally) huge undertaking be accomplished?  Your guess is as good as mine, but if a replica can be built of the Vickers Vimy bomber that flew non-stop across the Atlantic in 1919 then anything's possible.  I shall keep an eye out for their PR campaign next year with interest and - who knows? - maybe another eye out for a flying H.P.42 not long after that.

WWII Dornier bomber raised from English Channel

WWII Dornier bomber raised from English Channel

I expect many of my readers who are based in the U.K. will have been following this story as I have (and I'm sure overseas readers will be interested to hear about this project too), but only now do I feel justified in posting about it since it has (finally!) ended in practically complete success.

I can hardly believe that it has been nearly 3 years since I featured on this blog the news that the only known intact example of a Second World War German Dornier 17 bomber had been discovered resting in shallow water off the Kent coast.  In that time numerous dives had been made to study the wreck and devise a way to raise it from the Goodwin Sands - a plan that was put into action (as originally envisaged) last month.

Dornier 17: Salvaging a rare WWII plane from the seabed

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Alas the English Channel was not keen to relinquish its grasp of this aeroplane and it has taken until now - over a month from the anticipated salvage date - for it to finally see daylight for the first time in 70 years.  It has been a remarkable feat of engineering - not to mention patience! - to bring this aircraft out of the sea in as near as dammit one piece and one that very nearly looked like not coming off at all.  Thankfully all the time and money invested in this endeavour looks to have been worth it as the world's only extant Do17 airframe begins its new journey to the RAF Museum at Cosford, where it will undergo extensive restoration over the next two years and then eventually form a suitable counterpoint in the Battle of Britain exhibit at the Hendon museum.  Quite what form this will take I'm not sure, as I had thought the original plan was to keep it pretty much as it was found and the museum website talks about "conserving" it, but maybe they feel a full restoration is possible and desirable.  No doubt we shall see come 2015!  I shall look forward to continuing to follow Dornier 17 5K+AR's story over the next two years and hope to see it, in whatever form, at the RAF Museum in the future.

Pensioners restore rare WWII bomber

Pensioners restore rare WWII bomber

While preparations continue for the excavation and repatriation of a number of Spitfires, which may eventually lead to a doubling of airworthy examples, in a small corner of Lincolnshire work continues on increasing the flyable examples of another famous Second World War aircraft - the Avro Lancaster bomber.

Currently only two of the surviving 17 Lancaster airframes are airworthy.  One is of course PA474 City of Lincoln - better known as the mainstay of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight  - the other is owned and operated by a museum in Canada.  More are in the process of being restored at various locations around the world - in France, Canada and the U.S.A.  Looking most likely to make it back into the air first though is NX611 Just Jane, which has been the star attraction at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre since it was opened in 1988.  The story of how the museum came in to being and how the Lanc was obtained is explained briefly in the accompanying B.B.C. article and in greater detail here.

Source: earlscroftfarm.co.uk via Bruce on Pinterest

Lancaster bomber to fly as tribute to a lost brother

Suffice to say it has obviously been a labour of love for the two owner brothers - who must have been moved in ways we can only imagine to set the whole thing up - and the team who have spent the last 25 years getting Just Jane back to near-original condition.  So close are they to fulfilling their dream that they can already offer taxi runs to paying customers but now thanks to donations they have been able to purchase four "new" Merlin engines that should, all things being well, allow the aircraft to be deemed officially airworthy!

With Just Jane on the brink of returning to the skies and 30-odd Spitfires about to be dug out of the Burmese soil 2013 is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for these special aircraft.  Whether there will be two Lancs in the air in time for the 70th anniversary of the famous "Dam Busters" raid in May remains to be seen but that these aircraft will get the chance to fly again and continue to thrill and educate new generations is wonderful news indeed.

Rare Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes book on display

Rare Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes book on display

In May of 2010 I did a post about the sale of an ultra-rare copy of the first edition of A Study In Scarlet, one of only two copies known to exist that are signed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Thanks to a comment from Randall Stock, who maintains The Best of Sherlock Holmes & Conan Doyle website, we also learned that 30 other [unsigned] copies of the 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual - in which the story first appeared - have also survived to this day.

It is one of these other thirty, until recently in the hands of a now-deceased private collector, that will go on display at the Portsmouth City Museum in Hampshire on the 24th November - just in time for the 125th anniversary of The Great Detective's first appearance.  Sadly this particular example is not in the best of conditions and so will only be on view for a couple of months.

Still it is the least that should be done to help celebrate such a milestone, although I am sure we shall be commemorating many more Sherlockian anniversaries in the future - hopefully with one or more of these same first editions - as the appeal of the character and stories shows no signs of waning.  Indeed one could argue that never have the adventures of Mr Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson been more popular than at the present moment, with two hugely successful feature films (and a third rumoured to be on the way!), two series (and, again, a third next year) of the acclaimed modern B.B.C. interpretation Sherlock and most recently the positively-received American CBS version Elementary starring Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu proving the point.  That's before one even factors in the continuing availability of the books too, of which A Study In Scarlet is one of many still read by millions.  The game is definitely still afoot!

New life for old corner drugstore

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Vintage pharmacy is reborn at Heritage Square Museum

Here's a happy story with a vintage flavour from Los Angeles, where the fascinating-looking Heritage Square Museum has just gained a wonderful new "exhibit". A living history museum depicting southern California as it would have been at the turn of the last century, Heritage Square seems to have a wonderful selection of Victorian-era buildings to its name.  It had never had a chemists - or to use the American vernacular, a drugstore - though, until now.

The manner in which Colonial Drug has been introduced into Heritage Square is a heartwarming example of a business coming full circle and involving three generations of a local pharmaceutical family.  For the original Colonial Drug store, started in the 1920s by Latvian immigrant George Simmons, sat only a few streets away from where Heritage Square is now.  Thanks to Simmons' stockpiling habits his family, consisting of two sons and now their children (all of whom have worked at the various incarnations of Colonial Drug over the years), are in the unique position of having boxes of patent medicines and other vintage treatments from the 1890s to the 1950s.

Now after 20 years of sorting through these boxfuls of weird and wonderful potions the brothers Simmons and their families have opened a period-specific Colonial Drug store in the Heritage Square, using all the old products kept by George Simmons all those decades ago.  It was a stroke of minor genius to think of the living history museum as an outlet for these otherwise unwanted goods and top marks must go to Heritage Square people for seeing the potential and allowing - for the first time - the construction of a new building, an exact replica of the original Colonial Drug.

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So the store that began decades ago is back just as it was, albeit now as a living recreation, stocked full of original medications and still staffed by the Simmons family.  Should I ever find myself in Los Angeles a trip to the Heritage Square Museum and Colonial Drug (and its soda fountain!) would definitely be on my list of experiences.

Original Bluebird powerboat restored in Polegate

K3 Bluebird Run - Coming soon from Phill Beaney on Vimeo.

Original Bluebird powerboat restored in Polegate

Hot on the heels of my post the other week on the Land Speed Record holders of the 1920s and '30s, which featured in part Sir Malcolm Campbell and his Blue Bird speed cars, comes this news of the restoration of Malcolm Campbell's Blue Bird K3 powerboat that he used to capture the Water Speed Record in 1937 and 1938 following his triumphant retirement from the land speed race.

As I mentioned the Water Speed Record was if anything even more dangerous than the Land Speed Record since it claimed the lives of Sir Henry Segrave in 1930 and of course Malcolm Campbell's own son Donald in 1967.  Malcolm Campbell, along with his contemporaries Kaye Don and American Garfield Wood, would be one of the few speed record holders to survive to old age.

Blue Bird K3 was built for Campbell at the beginning of 1937 with the aim being to take back the Water Speed Record from the American Gar Wood, who had held it at 124.86mph since 1932.  Campbell elected to use the same Rolls-Royce R aero engine that he had used in his last Blue Bird car (and which both Segrave and Kaye Don had also used in their powerboats, the Miss England series), in fact one of the three engines he ended up using during his various runs had been fitted to the Campbell-Railton Blue Bird previously).  On the 1st September 1937 at Lake Maggiore on the Swiss-Italian border Campbell succeeded in raising the Water Speed Record to 126.32mph in Blue Bird K3.  Unsatisfied with a mere 2mph improvement he went to Lake Hallwyl in Switzerland the following year and raised it just past the 130mph mark - to 130.91mph.  This proved to be about the limit of K3's capabilities so Campbell set about having a completely new boat built, the K4. 

source

Sir Malcolm Campbell's good fortune is now ours as despite initially using K3's engine in K4 the boat itself was not destroyed and by 1988 it had found its way into the Foulkes Halbard Collection, part of the Filching Manor Motor Museum that is dedicated to the Campbell family's many successes.  Having undergone a slow yet full restoration in the ensuing 24 years Blue Bird K3 has now begun to be put through its paces once again on Bewl Water in Kent, as this news article and accompanying footage shows.  Although so far only a short 40mph test run, it is hoped that Blue Bird K3 will return to Lake Maggiore next year and travel a bit faster.  I doubt 130mph will be on the cards, though!

Nevertheless this is yet another great example of two decades' hard work paying off handsomely, honouring the memory of Sir Malcolm Campbell and bringing an historically important machine back to its best for enthusiasts and future generations to appreciate and experience.

Back on the buses (back on the blog!)

Some kind of record...

Goodness me!  Over a week since my last post?!  That must be some kind of record!  Not a good one, though, and I apologise again for it.  A concatenation of events, including a rest from my previous monster post (which I hope kept you all asleep entertained during my absence), couple with a distinct lack of blogworthy news and a little thing called "life" intervening conspired to keep me away.

Now I'm back - not from outer space - having recently attended the annual Castle Point Transport Museum Open Day Show in the old home town on Sunday.  A yearly pilgrimage, I can hardly believe it's come round again so soon.

Just as last year I initially feared the worst for the weather, as advance forecasts during the week had predicted rain and barely double-digit temperatures.  Once again, though, the seaside spirits of Canvey Island flexed their muscles and despite a cool wind the sun was high in a cloudless sky as I arrived at 11'o'clock.

1968 Eastern National Bristol Lodekka

(In the picture above you can see all that remains of a set of pre-1953 steps leading down to the sandy beach, which was completely covered by a high tide barely 3ft from the path.  Sometimes the water even makes it over that, as the piles of shingle next to the sea wall testified.)

Into the museum and I must admit one of the first things that I noticed was that the event seemed slightly smaller this year.  Certainly there were fewer stallholders and vehicles inside but I think 2011 was an exceptionally good year display-wise, so anything less would be bound to suffer slightly in comparison.  Even so there were some new faces among the old in the yard area outside:

1950 Bristol L (left) and 1953 GPO Maudsley Mogul MkIIIA

After a scout around the museum to pick up the lay of the land it was off next door - the grounds of my old primary school, in fact - where more goodness awaited me.  One of the first when I walked through the gate was this gorgeous Jaguar, featuring the flowing lines of the imposing Mark IX.  I have only just discovered that this particular car was bought at auction not one year ago, in what was quite a rare opportunity.  The original lot details are still available here.

1961 Jaguar MkIX

Swiftly followed by a beautiful 1928 Alvis 12/50 "Beetleback", one of only 319 left in the world.

A pair of Morris Eights and a later Oxford:

1937 Morris Eight SI

1937 Morris Eight SII

1953 Morris Oxford

1935 Rover 10

1950s Standard Eight

One of the more major attractions for this year was a selection of vintage speedway motorcycles dating from 1929 to 1931.  Although motorbikes are more in father's purview than mine I always appreciate a classic two-wheeler (or three if it has a sidecar!), especially if it is fitted with the wonderful JAP V-twin.  Some of these speedway racers were beautifully restored, others were still in original condition.

I'd like to take a moment to draw your attention to one of the exhibits you can see only part of in this photograph.  GNB 792D - visible in the top left drawing quite a crowd - is a 1966 Beardmore MkVII Paramount taxi, which was one of the last attempts to provide an alternative to the now-traditional London black cab that we know and love today.  It proved to be so popular that unfortunately I could not get a decent picture of it and it had left before the end of the day, so I shall have to keep my eyes open for it at future events.  It was even more of a shame because this recently-restored example was now plying for hire once again, this time in the world of special events, under the name of - Tickety Boo Taxi!  Of course I immediately thought of our own Tupney, travelling about in her very own taxi(!).

It wasn't the only taxi there, either:

1937 Austin 12/4

Once again doing some digging I find that this car also sold recently and moreover has a famous history - it appeared in a Carry On film!  Not any Carry On film either but one of my favourites, 1963's Carry On Cabby.

I was also delighted to see a 1971 Buick Riviera taking up one corner.  At the 2010 event there was a '64 Riv, the version which (not entirely undeservedly) tends to garner the most compliments but for my money the '71 boat-tail model is the more beautiful.  Keeping with the TV and film theme, it also helped that it happened to appear in one of my favourite TV shows of the '90s(!).  My word, it was huge, though - a lot bigger than I thought it would be.  No wonder it used a 7½-litre V8! 

American cars were well represented, as usual:

1946 Chevrolet Fleetline

1950 Ford Sedan

1953 Ford Crestline

1958 Chevrolet Yeoman

As were our attempts to emulate them(!):

1958 Vauxhall Victor Estate

1960 Ford Consul

There were plenty of other traditional British cars in evidence as well:

1930 Morris Cowley

Including my old favourite the 1934 Singer Eleven, once again complete with its period accessories:

1939 Rover 12

1941 Morris Z-Type, the sole example restored to its original GPO livery

1946 Austin Eight

1947 Ford Prefect

1947 Wolseley 14/60 SIII

1950 Ford V8 Pilot

1950 MG Y-type

1953 Ford Popular

1953 Morgan Plus Four Roadster

1950s Austin-Healey Sprite

1954 Austin-Healey 100-4

1959 Ford Popular

1960 Ford Prefect

1969 Marcos 1800

1970 MG Midget

1972 Volvo P1800S

Some microcars (bubble cars) from the 1950s, when the Suez Crisis was at its height, were also on show this year:

Messerschmitt KR200

1960 BMW Isetta

1971 Mercedes W111

Then it was off to the main showground by the seafront, where all the buses were on display.

This (below) was my transport back to the museum after I had had a good look around and a walk along the seafront.  Last year I missed riding on this 1953 Bristol KSW, which has served the local area for all life (having been converted to an open top in 1966 after which it ran the seafront route in Southend and Clacton), as it only arrived late in the afternoon just as I was leaving.  This year it was on much earlier and although I wasn't able to sit on the top deck, which proved to be extremely popular especially with the children, it was a lovely ride back to the museum (and smoother than some modern buses, I might add!).

There was just time for one last tour around the museum, including the model railway room (which I'm sure features some of my old set pieces that I sold to a local chap some years ago):

Plus the depot office, complete with some typewriters for my fellow typosphereans to identify(!):

Imperial 65 wide (VERY wide!) carriage

Despite the smaller number of stalls this year there was still plenty of things of interest to catch the eye.  With money and space being tight at Partington-Plans Towers I plumped for this little model of a 1939 Austin 18 ambulance in Civil Defence Corps colours as my memento for the day.

As I waited at the bus stop for a scheduled service back home, this 1953 AEC Regal IV that had been pressed into passenger-carrying service from the seafront turned up to disgorge more visitors.  I love the arrow-style indicators at the back!

So another annual show has been and gone, and jolly good fun it was too.  I'm sorry for throwing two heavy-going posts at you in succession; rest assured that normal service will resume shortly!  Maybe I'll do a one-line blog next to balance things out(!).  Until next time, all aboard!