The SOCIETY of AUTOMOTIVE HISTORIANS in BRITAIN, Autumn Seminar – Sunday 16th October 2011,  at The Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation in Paulerspury was a considerable success.  

The SEMINAR PROGRAMME comprised informative and entertaining presentations - ‘The Bean’ by Jonathan Wood, ‘Scripps Booth’ by Jonathan Betts, and ‘Rudyard Kipling, the Engineers’ Poet and Pioneer Motorist’  by the Rt Hon Lord Cope of Berkeley. In addition, our first book sale was over-subscribed by members. 53 members and guests attended, one of our largest attendances, and a very large number also came to the informal dinner the previous evening. Our thanks to all the speakers and to Philip Hall at the Hunt House for making all the arrangements.

Just in: 500 of the world’s greatest motoring history web sites, compiled by Alan Glaze. Published in Manchester in 2011 by Universal Motoring History Enterprises, with 47 pages, it costs £2.99. No address is given for buying a copy so an enquiry to  websites@motoring-history.com will be needed. This is a nicely produced A5 size booklet containing the details of 500 websites. You’ll know some of them but this booklet will certainly provide new leads for the dedicated researcher.

SAHB members can make use of the parent SAH’s service that enables members to post enquiries by email and receive regular email updates about specific topics. See http://lists.autohistory.org/mailman/listinfo/sah-motormail for further information. Or you can send your email address to sah-motormail@lists.autohistory.org. The system allows you to un-subscribe and make changes once your password is established. Our thanks to Bill Munro for pointing out this additional tool in the SAH armoury.

The latest Science Museum Library newsletter by email, January 2010, notes a new digitisation project for the vast trade literature collection, and a free bus ride system on Tuesdays from Swindon station to the museum and library site at Wroughton. It’s good to see these developments coming out from the revamped library service. To receive the newsletter email cate.watson@sciencemuseum.org.uk