The Way We Were
HARROGATE, NORTH YORKSHIRE
August 1971, Harrogate
‘Is its owner foreshadowing the inevitable corrosion by painting bits of it in a rusty shade?’ MINIS AND THEIR RUSTABILITY
A historic vehicle run through Harrogate but, because this is 1971, we should only really be interested in the buses. Well, so Nick Larkin maintains, anyway…
This August will see the 50th Trans-Pennine Vintage Commercial Vehicle Run, which will see dozens of historic vans, trucks and buses amble through the picturesque hills. We’re turning the clock back to a time when the event was just a few years old, and the only vehicles that could have possibly interested any of the pedestrians on Harrogate’s Parliament Street would have been the two Bedford OB buses mixing it with all the humdrum ordinary traffic.
Well, that was then and this is now, and the passage of almost 46 years has made all the Austins, Morrises, Minis and Hillmans seen here much more interesting. Although we’re not convinced that any of them would be allowed on the Trans-Pennine Run, even today, unless someone panelled over that Morris Minor’s windows and gave it some sign-writing…
We’ll deal with the Bedfords first, because they were the stars of 1971. Just passing Louis Copé on the corner is LTA 750, a 1949 OB bus with Duple bodywork. We think its livery here is generic, because it started life as a Western National machine, under whose operation it would have sported two-tone green and cream livery. Happily, it’s still with us, albeit now in Royal Blue company colours. Louis Copé no longer exists, however. A Polish immigrant established this famous high-class fashion emporium in the 1920s, supplying expensive luxury outfits to the well-heeled of the area. At least the elegant Edwardian buildings survive.
We can’t make out the registration number of the Bedford behind, but if it was preserved in 1971, it’s hopefully still around today. And it seems to be sporting Royal Blue colours, giving LTA 750 an insight into how its future would unfold in the following century.
Between the two buses is a late Morris Minor Traveller, which, as it has black-on-white reflective numberplates, we’ll hazard a guess is post-1968 (when new cars could start wearing these new-style plates). That’s a little grey Mini peeking out from behind the second Bedford.
The Mini MkI in the foreground is an interesting one. It’s a Morris in Super spec, judging by the bumper bars. However, having fallen down the food chain during its decade or so of life, it’s been customised with a bronze-coloured grille and side trim, plus a grille-mounted spotlamp. Those headlamps look a little strange, too. Is its owner foreshadowing the inevitable corrosion that will gradually consume his vehicle throughout the Seventies by painting bits of it in a rusty shade ahead of time?
The Austin A40 following it has had an unfortunate encounter with something, if its rippled grille is anything to go by. Behind it is a G-registration Hillman, but it’s not the Hunter it looks like, but the cheaper (and now ultra-rare) Minx variant with circular headlamps and no bumper overriders. The only apparent foreign vehicle, a Renault 10, is in its wake, being tailed by yet another Arrow-shape Hillman Minx. After that, the queue of traffic goes a little vague, although we can make out another Minor dwarfing what must be the most exotic car here, a red Jaguar E-type.
Just across from the E-type (and, if those double yellow lines continue, possibly illegally parked) is one of its bigger sisters, a Jaguar 420; the more upmarket 4.2-litre version of the S-type. How closely the XJ6 emulated the 420’s nose design is obvious – only the position of the sidelights and indicators make it possible to distinguish it from the later Jag in this cut-off view.
This scene is much the same today. Especially if you go on the first Sunday in August, when you’ll probably see quite a few Bedford OBs, if none of the other vehicles.