SUMMER 1965 NEWQUAY, CORNWALL
It may be high summer, but there’s a shivering of timbers in busy Newquay
‘Imagine all that superheated vinyl upholstery on sensitive scorched skin. Ouch’ SUMMER MOTORING IN 1965
This may be a classic car publication but we suspect that the first form of transport you noticed in this 1965 shot of Newquay’s harbour wasn’t one of the several Ford Anglias or BMC Farinas. There’s an elephant in the room… or rather a privateer in the port. Even for half a century ago, what’s moored up in this Cornwall fishing town is rather anachronistic. And not all that it might seem…
The ship in question is the Hispaniola, made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Well, sort of. The vessel actually started out as a schooner called Ryelands, launched in 1887. This China clay cargo trader was converted into an 18th century schooner replica for the 1950 Disney movie of RLS’ book and then starred as Pequod in 1956’s Moby Dick alongside Gregory Peck. It also featured in the TV show The Buccaneers. Quite a celebrity makeover. She eventually retired to Morecambe in Lancashire, where, then named Moby Dick, she was destroyed by fire in June 1970.
Five years previously, though, and the only burning is likely to be to Newquay tourists, from the sun. The presence of the Hispaniola has certainly attracted visitors – tour tickets from the wooden shack by the gangplank, one shilling for adults, 6d for children – with plenty of surrounding parked cars. But, oh, imagine the temperature of all that superheated vinyl upholstery on sensitive scorched skin when passengers return. Ouch.
We’ve scrutinised this image carefully and can’t find a single imported vehicle or anything remotely exotic. It’s all traditional British fare, a mixture of commercial vehicles presumably belonging to those who earn their living from the harbour, and family machines that have ventured west for holiday sun. The no-nonsense grey Minivan in the leading row, seeming even tinier thanks to the passing Rover P5, probably belongs to the former category while the neighbouring Hillman Superminx estate is likely of the latter. There’s even a sandcastle bucket in the back. Two BMC Farinas – a Morris then Austin – then compete with dull shades of grey.
The next row kicks off with a Wolseley 1500, then there’s another Minivan, albeit this time with a roof vent. That the A30 ‘estate’ next door also has one suggests it’s a purchase tax-beating conversion of a van rather than a genuine Countryman. It’s cosying up to a younger Longbridge relation in the form of an 1100 MkI which, judging by its pre-registration letter numberplate, must have been one of the first of its type built. Competing estate rivals are next; a Morris Minor and a Ford Anglia 105E. The roof racks suggest that they’d arrived so loaded with nuclear families that not even their extra load-lugging capacity was enough to pack all their paraphernalia in.
Another roof rack recipient is the Rover P4 heading the third line; obviously a well-travelled example judging by the chrome ‘GB’ letters on its bootlid. Then two Austin A30s – the second another DIY van-cumestate – huddle together for security, followed by a large-finned Morris Oxford Series V, a Ford Consul MkI and Austin A50 Cambridge.
Parked by the beach are a Ford Anglia 123E Super, a bicycle of indeterminate origin and a Thames 400E van that it’s tempting to believe may have been the tow vehicle for the nearby and more flamboyant ice cream kiosk trailer.
Getting in the way of a decent side photograph of the Hispaniola is a Ford 100E Prefect, with an aftermarket two-tone blue and white paintjob. It can’t outshine the adjacent bright scarlet Mini though, heavily weighed down with external luggage. Other vehicles on the harbour wall include another grey BMC Farina, Hillman Superminx estate and Series I-III Minx, a couple of Ford Anglias, plus a Corsair and 100E, Morris Minor saloon and Traveller and, parked by the Hispaniola’s ticket shack, a rather nice two-tone Vauxhall Cresta PB. It’s the only Lutonmobile here.
It’s all rather idyllic, isn’t it? They don’t seem to make British summers like this anymore. Or cars.