Jackson - Charnside Engineering

Jackson  "Charnside Engineering" is listed on build cards  as the customer for a Lotus 12 but I can find no record of a Jackson using a Lotus 12 in 1957 or 1958.

    I wonder if the TNF can shed any light on the mysterious Jackson or "Charnside Engineering".

    Does anyone recall them racing a Lotus or another make of car in the mid/late 1950s?  

      Here's hoping.   Mike Bennett Lotus 12 Registrar HLR

I have no record of any Jackson racing a Lotus in period

The likeliest candidate might be Peter Jackson, who raced small Cooper sportscars. He was of the Scottish persuasion, and if his business was Chirnside Enngineering there might be a connection with other border drivers, though the only northern drivers I can think of racing Lotus 12s were Keith Hall and, I think, Anthony Brooke. Graham Gauld might be able to help

If you have access to the complete build list might I (cheekily?) suggest that a process of elimination would lead you to the right car?

I know the car to be #352 the first car built and run with the queerbox. My current assumption is that Jackson of Charnside Eng (it is Charnside) did not take delivery of the car.

   There are many possible reasons for this, one more likely is that as the queerbox ran into immediate failures that Jackson said " fix it before we take delivery".

     The Black Book lists #352 still being used by Team Lotus until August 1958 over a year later.

       So who was the mysterious Jackson and his Charnside Eng business? It would seem likely that he had some involvement with motorsport around 1957/8/       

Mike, I have spoken to the archive dept at Companies House about Charnside Eng. Sadly they now charge 20quid for a basic search plus another 20 for further info. The way of the world I am afraid. With old cos they can usually tell you when it was regd and or dissolved and a regd address. With your time scale I suspect that might be all they have. I had the same problems with a Co about which I sought info around 1959ish.
Sorry but I cannot offer more help. If we knew their general location there might be some chance via the old phone directories on Ancestry etc.
Roger Lund

Thanks for looking into that Roger, I think I will hold on doing such an investigation for a while. It just seemed to me that someone who was prepared to stump up for a brand new F2 car in 1957 must surely have had some motorsport involvement before? However despite my reading of all the contemporary Motor Sport and Autosport magazines etc. I have not been able to find any reference to Jackson in active motorsport either before or after 1957.

                    I am now quite confident that Jackson never took delivery of #352 and that the car remained in the hands of Team Lotus.

         However it is just one piece of the puzzle and most other pieces are in place.

         Thanks Mike B

Mike, just googling Charnside puts up links to Charnside being in Poole area and Eastligh, both S Coast of England, so poss connections with other known Lotuseers but under a different name from those days? A long shot, I grant you, but nevertheless....
BTW have you checked with Mike Anthony, Bob Hicks or David Piper for any recollections?.
Roger Lund

CHASESIDE Engineering !  Having taken another look at the build card and the scribbled hand writing it is CHASESIDE Engineering.

   

      Google Chaseside Engineering and there are one or two pages which shows that Mr Gordon Jackson was the MD. He moved north and lived it seems in a Village called Mellor in Lancashire with the works having moved from  Hertford and Ware to Blackburn.

 

            So we now know that Lotus 12 chassis #352 was ordered by Mr Gordon Jackson of Chaseside Engineering in 1957, we believe he did not take delivery of the car.

             All I have to do is to find Mr Jackson or a descendent and see if we can finally find why he did not take delivery of the car.

 

             Damn, I should have visited Mellor when in the UK just a few weeks ago to start the hunt.

 

            Mike B Adelaide

Kike, check with Bjorn Kerr of this parish via his Transporter connections. ISTR he has some old pics so may have contacts

Roger Lund

BTW there are plenty of TNFers who reside in the greater Lancashire area who might help with searches. Also there are one or two old contacts from days of old there whom I might be able to contact.

There are a number of advertisements in Motor Sport for:
Chaseside Motor Co Ltd, Great Cambridge Road, Enfield, Middlesex.
For example April 1957:

MARK I COOPER-BRISTOL 652

Fitted BSI engine. This is an immaculate example

of this famous Mark, finished in scarlet. Since

last season, when it was driven by one of our

directors, this car has been stripped down and

rebuilt and is ready to race as it stands. Four new

tyres, numerous spares, long-distance tanks, etc.

£700

 

RGDS RLT 

Edited by Rupertlt1, 23 June 2015 - 11:45.