‘WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LET THEM DISAPPEAR’
Club scrambles to secure archive and spares from Bristol liquidator
An unpaid tax bill has forced Bristol Cars into liquidation after 75 years in business. Kamkorp Limited, which bought Bristol in 2011, lodged an appeal to prevent the winding up of the firm on 28 February, but this failed.
At stake are the assets of Bristol Cars Limited and Bristol Cars Services, which include an almost unbroken archive of drawings, correspondence and models stretching back to Bristol Cars’ formation as an offshoot of the Bristol Aircraft Company in 1945. Critical spares are also at risk; the Bristol Owners’ Club has been communicating with the receiver in the hope of securing them.
Bristol Owners’ Club chairman, Peter Campbell, said: ‘There’s no going back from this and we are desperately sad for the staff at Bristol Cars Services, which repairs, maintains and improves historic
Bristols at the Service Centre in Windelsham, Surrey.
‘Our priority is the complete and unmolested archive and the spares available; the liquidator is aware of our interest but they will have to decide what they’re worth.’
If successful, the Bristol Owners’ Club would combine the archive from the remains of Bristol’s sole showroom, formerly located in Kensington, London, with that of the Bristol Owners’ Heritage
Trust, a separate entity from the club in which the rest of the factory archives are kept. The Bristol Owners’ Heritage Trust has kept its documents in Bristol City’s storage facilities for the ten years and would have space for recovered assets.
Peter said: ‘They’re our Crown Jewels. The archives and spares belong to Bristol owners and we cannot afford to let them disappear.’
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