Another Spring Seminar success

Undoubtedly one of the most successful SAHB Seminars thus far, our second visit to the Aston Martin Owners’ Club Heritage Trust Centre at Drayton St Leonard on Sunday 21st March provided just about everything for the 49 members and guests in attendance. A huge new screen had been installed, the computer system behaved faultlessly, ample space was available for everyone to mingle while enjoying the delicious buffet lunch and, most importantly of all, the speakers educated and entertained in equal measure.

The Saturday evening dinner at the White Hart Hotel in Dorchester-on-Thames was also well supported with 24 people enjoying a very sociable occasion.

After the briefest of introductions from organiser Bryan Goodman, the first presentation ‘Humber before the Rootes takeover’ was given by John Tarring.  It was in 1868 that Thomas Humber started making bits and pieces in his garden shed before progressing to build bicycles.  The first ‘proper’ Humber car appeared in 1901 and this had a single-spoke steering wheel which was to become a trade-mark feature for several years. John’s talk was illustrated with many wonderful period photos (which included aero engines and motorcycles as well as bicycles, cars and factories, etc) and he explained that such material was still coming to light.

Had there been a long distance award, then Malcolm Bobbitt was surely a contender, making the trip down from Cumbria to present a tremendously entertaining talk about William Henry Ireland. Based at Great Sankey in Cheshire, Ireland was another pioneer cycle maker who entered the motor industry.

The morning session ended with Bryan Goodman’s motoring quiz. David Burgess-Wise achieved the highest score of 33 correct answers, but our quiz master decided to exclude ‘professionals’ and so the award went to Andrew Marfell.

The afternoon was taken up by a thought-provoking presentation from John Minnis of English Heritage. He is working on an incredibly complex book assignment called ‘The Car Project’. The aim is to record structures representing the car’s influence on our way of life and this includes garages, filling stations, car showrooms, car parks, roadside cafes, etc.  The sheer scope and variety of historic motoring buildings that still exist came as a great surprise to most people in the audience and John is keen to obtain further data from SAHB members.

Tony Beadle