Congleton’s colossally eclectic congregation
An amazingly diverse discovery of 135 cars from a single collection went for sale early in November. Auction house Nathaniel Carter Mcskelly conducted the event for Asset Realisation Services, the company called in to liquidate the collection following the sale of a farm near Congleton, Cheshire. Nathan Richardson of ARS oversaw the immense job of removing all the vehicles to his storage facility in Preston, Lancashire.
‘The new owner plans to demolish the barns, so they had to be cleared,’ says Nathan. ‘This was easier said than done, because most of them are non-runners and access to the site was too constricted to get a car transporter in. We had to employ landscape gardeners to hack back the growth around the lane to the farm, just to get single-car trailers and transporters in.’
The cars make a bizarre and surprising mix: there are many Seventies, Eighties and Nineties luxury models from BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar and Rolls-royce, plus many obscure kit cars and GRP sports marques such as Gilbern, Trident, Reliant, TVR and Falcon. There is a six-wheeled Carmichael Range Rover, a Bristol 411 with front-end damage, sundry Mini-based rarities such as a Hustler and a Midas, various classic Lancias and Alfa Romeos, plenty of familiar Brits from MG, Triumph, Austin and Morris, an NSU RO80, a Panther Kallista, a beach buggy and a T-bucket hotrod with a Daimler V8. And plenty more.
Details of the person or people involved in gathering and storing such an eclectic assembly are frustratingly scarce – the auction house and liquidation company have had contact only with the buyers of the farm, not the vendor.
With every car at no reserve and a £50 start – but most without paperwork or even keys – prices for the more unusual projects were quite strong. For example: £4000 for the Hustler, £12k for the Bristol and £3800 for a very sad Trident Venturer.