This photograph was found on the 100th Bomb Group Museum‘s Twitter feed and was taken by the museum’s curator on Saturday 9th June 2018. It depicts those entered for the 2018 PWMN Rally lined up alongside their cars immediately prior to the start of the Saturday tour. They are posing for the rally photo which, as is customary, is being taken by Kate Martin on the roof of the control tower, or as the Americans call it, the watchtower. (Photo courtesy of the 100th Bomb Group Museum)
On a very windy September day in 2011 a group of friends assembled with their Minors in the far east of Suffolk at Bawdsey, the intention being to visit the site of the secret WWII radar station housed in the grounds of Bawdsey Manor. For reasons that are now lost in the mist of time, the radar station visit didn’t take place but a march along the adjoining shingle beach cleared the previous night’s hangovers for all six concerned.
Reg Gammon was used as an illustrator by the Morris Owner magazine through the late nineteen twenties and into the thirties. He also worked for Temple Press, publishers of both the Light Car and Motor magazines throughout this same period. It’s no surprise to find that his talents were highly prized by these publications as his representations of cars, people and places are simple, yet skillfully applied. His obituary here makes for a very interesting read.
Two ‘saloonists’ have been taking advantage of the summer weather and the further easing of lockdown as a little needed excuse to exercise their cars. The top photo was taken by Tilly Yates, while husband Peter drove their 1933 Minor Saloon (LV 975) home as dusk was falling upon the Leicestershire countryside. Below, Ken Martin didn’t need to drive far to be deep in the Wiltshire downs, where he took this photo from the cabin of his 1930 Minor Saloon (VX 4590).
Slowly but surely some vintage motoring activities are returning. The Home Counties Section exercised three of their cars, meeting up on the downs at Epsom on Sunday, while other members simply took to the byways (OK, driveway in one case) for some high summer meandering around the lanes, keeping at least two-metres apart from other road users.
It’s amazing to think that it was five years ago that many Networkers (both past and present) took part in the Around The Edge Challenge. The aim was to circumnavigate England’s borders raising money for macmillan and other charities. The event took part in the spring of that year and here Avril and Tim Ovenden were photographed entering Winchelsea in their 1932 Morris Minor Two-seater (KJ 3553) on a cold March morning.
Almost six years ago, the Network in conjunction with the Pre-war Austin Seven Club and The Automobile magazine organised The Minor – Seven Challenge. The event took place at the 100th Bomb Group’s Museum at Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolk and took the form of a series of driving tests in which motoring journalist Matthew Bell thoroughly exercised an Austin Seven and a Morris Minor on the former WWII airfield. In this photo Matthew reverses the Austin Seven around a series of cones, with the photographer including Janie Maeers 1932 Minor Tourer (OY 3270) in the foreground. The resulting article appeared in the November 2014 edition of the magazine.
Bob Howden’s MG Midget (GY 8840) heads up this trio of open cars captured deep in the Wiltshire countryside during the 2019 Moonrakers’ Rally. Behind the MG is John Paternoster’s 1929 Morris Minor Tourer (SV 9091) while the Janie Maeers/Geof Wilson Tourer (VJ 1756) brings up the rear. (Photo Liz Thomas)
