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The passing of Len Pritchard of Williams & Pritchard


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#1 W&P Register

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Posted 17 September 2008 - 21:26

Len Pritchard, the surviving half of the British racing bodywork genuises Williams & Pritchard (renowned not only for their work with Lotus but with an extensive CV of coachbuilding for other thouroughbreds through the fifties and sixties) sadly passed away in hospital in the early hours of this morning (17th Sep). This was unexpected as he had just made a full recovery from his last infection and was due out of hospital this morning He leaves a wife Gladys and son Graham who are shocked and devastated.

The family have asked me to try and gather tributes on the Register website that can be used at the funeral, and to publicise the funeral when it is announced later this week.

All memories that reflect Len and his character, tributes and photos (apparently the family have very few of him) would be very welcome by email, and I will forward them on.

I also don't know how realistic this is, but I've just thought how wonderful it would be to try and get some of "his" cars there to see him off.

There will be a formal memorial page added to the website tomorrow evening, but in the meantime more information is at:

http://www.williamsa....co.uk/news.htm

There is a nice little story on there that I have typed verbatim from Colin, Len's nephew, recounting the tale of the design of the Lotus 6 bodywork.

Please can you communicate this information to anyone else in the historic racing community who may wish to pay their respects.

Many thanks

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#2 RTH

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Posted 19 September 2008 - 10:31

Sad news indeed.

Thanks for posting this information Tim and welcome to the Forum.

If you look through the Hornsey thread you will see photographs I took of the W&P premises in Edmonton last year.

Len and Charlie were clearly greatly talented at the highly skilled craft of forming aluminium sheet in to complex compound shapes.
What a strange society it is when this week a shark in a glass tank of formaldehyde was auctioned for £11M , when to my eye one of Len Pritchard's Lotus 11 bodies displays a vastly greater ( only about a million times! ) level of artistic skill.

Tim, please feel free to post anything you have about their work for Lotus in the Hornsey thread.

I am not aware of any film interview with either Len Pritchard or indeed Charlie Williams , unless anyone knows different ?

Are you aware of anyone else still with us who worked at W&P in those years of the 50s & 60s with memories of those times ?

#3 Tim Murray

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Posted 12 March 2012 - 13:02

I tried to look something up on Tim's excellent Williams & Pritchard website today to find he has been forced to close it for reasons he explains on the home page. This is not good. :well:

http://www.williamsa...xpagspecial.htm

#4 Allan Lupton

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Posted 12 March 2012 - 17:19

I tried to look something up on Tim's excellent Williams & Pritchard website today to find he has been forced to close it for reasons he explains on the home page. This is not good. :well:

http://www.williamsa...xpagspecial.htm

Interesting to see one of the names of the people who have been causing trouble. A man of that name bought a car from me (as a private individual) in about 1979 and I subsequently met the man he'd sold it on to, who told me that dealer's (as he really was) version of its history which was entirely fiction and supported a huge mark-up.

#5 Tuboscocca

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Posted 12 March 2012 - 17:52

I tried to look something up on Tim's excellent Williams & Pritchard website today to find he has been forced to close it for reasons he explains on the home page. This is not good. :well:

http://www.williamsa...xpagspecial.htm



OH...Peter Schomer is involved..that rings a bell: SITGES and others..
Still owes me money for the presubscribed book on SITGES ,which was never published!!

PS also 'owns' the Coventry Climax name...according to a google search..

Caveat emptor!!

Michael