For some reason, we have never ever been into Tacla Taid, the local transport museum, thinking that it was just for retired agricultural vehicles. Little did we know ! Inside a big shed is a magnificent assembly of old cars, all in an immaculate state of high polish and all beautifully labelled, including detailed information of their previous owners:-
It starts with an Austin 7 (1937):-
There’s an Austin A35 (this is the car I first drove round Europe in the summer of 1971):-
A Morris 1100 – hard to remember how modern this was when it was ‘car of the year’ in 1964 (ours was APJ 365B):-
I found the whole display unexpectedly nostalgic – cars were so different in their design, so much more solid, more boxy, or in some cases, more curvaceous, including cars I had forgotten about, like the Humber Snipe and the Hillman Minx:-
We had a Zephyr, bought in about 1962 from a garage on the Guildford bypass:-
I had entirely forgotten how much of my childhood was devoted to car spotting; and how much of the British class system was contained in the classification of cars – Rover posh, Austin respectable and Vauxhall very spivvy:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
By one of those strange coincidences, the first three cars I had as my:”own” car when my husband had a work vehicle, were an Austin 7, a Morris 1100 (on which the brakes failed causing me to run into the back of a Humber Super Snipe), and a Hillman Hunter which we were incredibly proud of being able to buy new! Yes, very nostalgic. Thank you.
It is funny how many memories old cars hold. Our family always had Fords since most of them worked at the Dagenham factory, having previously worked at the Cork one before leaving Ireland. My most vivid childhood memories are of sitting in a Ford Cortina listening to Sing Something Simple on Radio 2, heading back from our caravan in Leysdown, Isle of Sheppey on Sunday evenings, depressed at the prospect of school the following day.
Sometime in my teens my dad broke ranks and bought a cheap second hand Hillman Avenger. I think some of his siblings found that hard to forgive!
My parents bought a Morris 1100 in 1963. The brochure said the ride was so smooth the passenger could drink a cup of tea and thread a needle while underway. I remember my mother trying to thread a needle but don’t think she ventured the tea test.
I can’t remember when mine bought one – it was the same dull grey as the one in the museum. A very dull car – I can’t imagine why Morris thought it was so glamorous. Charles