My other car is a Tardis . . .
QUESTION What became of the vintage car driven by Jon Pertwee in Doctor Who? TO DEFEND the planet from aliens, the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) needed an earthly mode of transport. This was the yellow car that first appeared in the 1970 episode, Doctor Who And The Silurians.
It was a kit car based on a 1954 Ford Popular chassis constructed by Siva & Neville Trickett Ltd of Dorset. Though fibreglass, it was made to look vintage.
Bessie, as she was called, was road legal and registered as MTR 5. However, she suffered many reliability and handling problems that resulted in a total rebuild during the tenth season of Doctor Who.
Tom Baker also drove Bessie in his first series, as did Sylvester McCoy in 1989. The car’s final appearance was in Dimensions In Time, a Children In Need charity special, in 1993.
Bessie now resides in Beaulieu National Motor Museum.
N. Cooper, London SW10. BESSIE was a Siva Edwardian kit car. Siva sold parts to be bolted onto a stripped- down donor vehicle, a ‘sit up and beg’ Ford Popular (103E), which was in production from 1953 to 1962.
The completed Siva Edwardian had distinctive spoked, carriage-type wheels — with equally distinctive Ford Popular wheels lurking beneath. The spoked wheels were merely a fibre glass moulding affixed to the real vehicle wheels. In 1968, Vintage: Jon Pertwee in Bessie when the kit was first in production, the motoring magazine Hot Car published an extensive article covering the conversion of a donor vehicle into an Edwardian.
David Marks, Orpington, Kent. QUESTION The sixpence was nicknamed a tanner or sprazie, while the shilling was a bob. What are the origins of these terms? SIxPENCES (half a shilling) were minted virtually continuously from 1551 until decimalisation. The nickname tanner is thought to be derived from John Sigismund Tanner (1705-1775), chief engraver of the Royal Mint during the reign of George II and designer of the sixpence.
An alternative derivation is from the Romany word tawno, meaning small one, and the Italian danaro, meaning small change. Sprazie is probably of Romany origin, a variation of sprat, a small fish.
The English shilling dates from 1550, deriving from the Testoon, an old Italian silver coin. After the Acts of the Union in 1707, it became the British shilling.
The word probably comes from the Anglo-Saxon scilling or scylling, meaning division, which can also be traced to Old Norse. Bob dates from at least the late 1700s and defies etymology. In his Slang Dictionary of 1864, John Camden Hotten says it comes from bobstick, a shilling’s worth of gin — but the gin measure may be named after the coin.
He also suggests a link to Sir Robert Walpole, prime minister from 1721 to 1742 and Chancellor from 1727 to 1740, who reduced land tax from four shillings to one.
There could be a connection with the Church, since bob also means a set of changes rung on bells. This would be consistent with the root of the word shilling, from the proto-Germanic skell, meaning to sound or ring.
There might be a link with plumb-bob, a piece of lead used by masons. Brewer’s 1870 Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable says bob could be derived from bawbee, 16th to 19th- century slang for a halfpenny. This was derived from the French bas billon, a debased copper coin.
Florence Tate, Bournemouth. QUESTION Border collies are fantastic sheep dogs. Are any other breeds used to work with flocks? AN EARLIER answer mentioned the Australian kelpie. I saw this at Gledswood Homestead, New South Wales.
The herdsman said his kelpie had just had pups and was eager to get back to work. He sent her out to find the sheep, which were normally kept in the far corner of a field. But to test her skills, he had hidden them behind a hedge.
The dog ran to where the sheep were normally kept and then into the next field to collect and return them to the herdsman without being given any commands.
Ken Futter, Swindon, Wilts.