27 replies to this topic

[MarkHealy]

I've taken advantage of the current restrictions to finally scan images my father made at Silverstone, Prescott, Shelsley, and Oulton during the summer of 1955. I've posted them to a Flickr collection which may be found at https://www.flickr.c...57713975061507/

 

Mark

[Odseybod]

Wonderful stuff - thanks for posting them, Mark.

[pete53]

Lovely pictures from a very different and distant time.

[Richard Jenkins]

How good to see something so positive from what was - largely - a dark and troubled summer in racing. Thanks Mark.

[Ray Bell]

That one labelled the 'Steyr-Allard' looks interesting...

 

Any more about that?

[Tim Murray]

The Steyr-Allard was built by Sydney Allard in 1946/47 and used by him to win the British Hillclimb Championship in 1949 after a great battle during the year with, among others, Stirling Moss. The car used a 3.6-litre air-cooled Steyr V8 engine. The car is being driven in Mark’s photos by Doug Wilcocks.

https://www.motorspo...he-steyr-allard

[arttidesco]

Lovely pics from what turned out to be a troubled summer for the sport in general, love the pic of the Bobby in his thick winter coat watch in the 500's, somes up Silverstone in May perfectly even today, thanks for sharing 

[Eric Dunsdon]

Wonderful memories. The AMOC Silverstone was the first of many Club Silverstone's that we cycled up from Barnet to and I remember spectating from the safety bank at Copse Corner. A really sunny day as well. We had plenty of those that summer.

[Eric Dunsdon]

Mark. The September Prescott pictures are brilliant. Thank you. Your dad did a great job.

[MarkHealy]

Wonderful memories. The AMOC Silverstone was the first of many Club Silverstone's that we cycled up from Barnet to and I remember spectating from the safety bank at Copse Corner. A really sunny day as well. We had plenty of those that summer.

That's wonderful Eric. Looking at the photos, it seems you were probably standing in the same area as my father that day.

 

P.S. Barnet to Silverstone is no mean feat on a bike!

[bradbury west]

What a joyous archive from that period across such a range of events, especially interesting being the Irish motor racing photographs. It is always a delight to come across such a trove of pictures, and captioned very clearly.
Many thanks, as the others have said.
Roger Lund

[68targa]

Lovely time-warp photos.

I particularly like the Oulton pics which show spectator fashions of the time and what appears to be an just unprotected earth bank - as it was 65 years ago.

[MCS]

Wonderful selection of pictures.  Thanks for posting these Mark - cheered me up no end!

[Eric Dunsdon]

Mark, I am sure that we must have been in the same area as your father and I can really relate to those images. Those earthen safety banks were so overgrown that the few spectator marshalls would have had difficulty seeing us in the undergrowth!.
Yes it was something of a slog up the A5, but worth it . I worked at Fleetway Publications in Farringdon Street London and used to sort and deliver the Post for Gardening Weekly which was edited by Dudley Coram of the AMOC.

[Dutchy]

I’ve just looked at the photos of Prescott 1955 and a couple of shots are definitely not of Prescott (the Bug with outside exhaust and the Bentley). However, I cannot identify the venue.
Some truly fascinating images and thank you for sharing them.

Edited by Dutchy, 23 April 2020 - 19:55.

[RobMk2a]

Mark - I posted a link to the Turner engine Kieft at Shelsley to the Turner facebook Group - they had some early photos (The car is now in the Coventry Motor Museum). 

 

Rob 

[MarkHealy]

I’ve just looked at the photos of Prescott 1955 and a couple of shots are definitely not of Prescott (the Bug with outside exhaust and the Bentley). However, I cannot identify the venue.
Some truly fascinating images and thank you for sharing them.

 

You mean https://www.flickr.c...57713989023008/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/41342556@N00/49803839012/in/album-72157713989023008/ ?

These looked odd to me as well. Looking at the negs, frame 24 is the last shot from the previous event (Daily Express Silverstone), frame 25 is blank, frames 26-29 are in this area, and subsequent frames are at the Esses. I have his diary from that time and the only two events he has listed during this period are Silverstone 7th May and Prescott on the 22nd. This and the fact that it would be very unusual that he would expose just 4 frames if it were a different event leads me to believe that it must be somewhere in Prescott

[MarkHealy]

Mark - I posted a link to the Turner engine Kieft at Shelsley to the Turner facebook Group - they had some early photos (The car is now in the Coventry Motor Museum). 

 

Rob 

 

No problem Rob. Must look for that page.

 

Mark

[MarkHealy]

You mean https://www.flickr.c...57713989023008/ and https://www.flickr.c...57713989023008/ ?

These looked odd to me as well. Looking at the negs, frame 24 is the last shot from the previous event (Daily Express Silverstone), frame 25 is blank, frames 26-29 are in this area, and subsequent frames are at the Esses. I have his diary from that time and the only two events he has listed during this period are Silverstone 7th May and Prescott on the 22nd. This and the fact that it would be very unusual that he would expose just 4 frames if it were a different event leads me to believe that it must be somewhere in Prescott

 

After some further research, I have found a reference in Chris Mason's 'Uphill Racers' to Westbrook Hay and Prescott forming a double header on 21/22 May. Could these be Westbrook Hay? I've no reference to my father being there (although I have a vague recollection of him saying that he had been in Hemel Hempstead once) and the David Roscoe film of the 1959 Westward Hay event on YouTube (and current day Google Earth images) doesn't look similar to the images I have.

[cooper997]

Of the limited bonuses available at the moment, for the TNF community Mark's effort is time well spent. Thank you for spending your time preparing your father's efforts all those summers ago. 

 

A magic and diverse range of events and cars.

 

Stephen

[Allan Lupton]

I agree that those two photos are not at Prescott but I don't think they are Westbrook Hay either. As I recall it, the spectators' carpark at Westbrook Hay was the other side of the A41 road so viewing the proceedings from ones car was not possible. There was a large tree to the right of the course, but it was on a right-hand curve of the track which tightened after the tree . (i.e. not the tree in Mr Healy's photos)

 

ETA There was a Falcon MC event at Tempsford on Whit Monday (the day after Prescott) and the Unlimited Sports Car class was won by J.A. Williamson who would have driven a Bentley.

Edited by Allan Lupton, 24 April 2020 - 08:41.

[MarkHealy]

 

ETA There was a Falcon MC event at Tempsford on Whit Monday (the day after Prescott) and the Unlimited Sports Car class was won by J.A. Williamson who would have driven a Bentley.

 

Thanks Allan. Re Tempsford, these images are before the Prescott images on the same roll and so could not have been made on the Monday. However, they could be anywhere between the 7th May (the Silverstone Daily Express Trophy, frames 1-24 of the same roll) and the 22nd.

 

Mark

[Allan Lupton]

I confused myself about the sequence, so I'll say that Motor Sport's Fixtures for May listed a North Midland MC Hillclimb on 15 May. but without a venue.

Then there was an event at Barbon Manor which is reported in the July Motor Sport without a date or organising club.(June MS was full of the Mille Miglia so no club event results).

[Dutchy]

After some further research, I have found a reference in Chris Mason's 'Uphill Racers' to Westbrook Hay and Prescott forming a double header on 21/22 May. Could these be Westbrook Hay? I've no reference to my father being there (although I have a vague recollection of him saying that he had been in Hemel Hempstead once) and the David Roscoe film of the 1959 Westward Hay event on YouTube (and current day Google Earth images) doesn't look similar to the images I have.

[Dutchy]

I’ve tried to find the reference in the Mason book without success - the book glosses over the 1950s Hillclimb scene, dismissing the decade as a Cooper V-Twin benefit.
I did wonder if Westbrook Hay was the mystery venue but the surface in the photos is concrete rather than tarmacadam so that can’t be it.
Tempsford is surely a red herring as it was an airfield and I think the course shown has far too much vegetation for it to be part of an airfield.

Edited by Dutchy, 24 April 2020 - 21:09.

[MarkHealy]

I’ve tried to find the reference in the Mason book without success - the book glosses over the 1950s Hillclimb scene, dismissing the decade as a Cooper V-Twin benefit.
I did wonder if Westbrook Hay was the mystery venue but the surface in the photos is concrete rather than tarmacadam so that can’t be it.
Tempsford is surely a red herring as it was an airfield and I think the course shown has far too much vegetation for it to be part of an airfield.

 

Second paragraph of P.145 in the Mason book. I agree that neither Westbrook nor Tempsford look likely for the reasons you've outlined.

[10kDA]

Thanks for posting. Your dad must have had a blast that summer!

[Dutchy]

Second paragraph of P.145 in the Mason book. I agree that neither Westbrook nor Tempsford look likely for the reasons you've outlined.

Thank you Mark.
The page isn’t listed in the index, hence I missed it.