The Way We Were
Wells, Somerset
Early shopping trips by car were quickly becoming the rule in Wells during the early 1960s. The passenger service to Tucker Street station would end by September of this year, and the volume of traffic in the Market Place reflects the recent growth of private vehicle ownership.
On the right of this shot is a Morris Oxford MO, which in 1948 was one of Nuffield’s five new cars for the postwar era, along with the Morris Minor and Six MS, plus Wolseleys 4/50 and 6/80. 15 years later the Morris owner would have been well aware that the 1476cc sidevalve engine was designed a time long before the phrase ‘the motorway age’ but the MO was still often seen as a rural taxi cab in many parts of the country.
Moving left we find an Austin A55 Cambridge MkII and it is often forgotten how its Pininfarina lines startled many a die-hard Austin owner upon its debut in 1959. Those tailfins may have been only just the right side of the respectable/the neighbours think you are spiv divide, but the engineering was reassuringly familiar and the interior as sober as a
town clerk’s office. The A55 is parked next to an Austin A40, which in 1958 was the first BMC car with Farina coachwork. The MkII version, as seen here, was launched in 1961, and boasted revised frontal treatment, a longer wheelbase and a new fascia.
Meanwhile, parked between the A40 and a second MO sporting the post-1952 radiator grille is the sort of car that would cause gasps of ‘I say!’ The possibility of encountering an Italian-registered Fiat 1200 Cabrillo in your average provincial town or city market square in the early 1960s was on a par with seeing Dirk Bogarde and/or Stanley Baker in the Cathedral Antique Shop. The 1200 may have been derived from a modest saloon, but those elegant lines were reminiscent of the Ferrari 250 GT PF. The Cabriolet was the province of Fiat’s Vetture Speciali (special car) division, and regarded as an alternative to the MGA and Triumph TR3A in the US export territory.
Could the owner of this 1200 have been making a tour of the West Country and calling in at the Traveller’s Joy to plan the next stage of their journey? Fortunately, just in case the Fiat caused too much excitement among the residents of Wells, there is a Ford Anglia 100E, a car for people as sensible as a pair of gumboots and who regarded The Billy Cotton Band Show as the height of racy entertainment. The quasiDetroit station wagon circa 1958 appearance of the Hillman Minx Estate (which appears to be a Series III judging by the badging) made it rather more dynamic looking than the Ford, albeit no less practical.
As for the likes of the Wolseley 1500, the four-door Prefect 100E and the Triumph Herald, such cars would have been as much a part of the landscape as the Red Lion Hotel – but any Peugeot would have been as unusual as the 1200 Cabriolet in Somerset of 1963.
When the 403’s 11-year production run ended in 1966, it was the company’s first car to sell more than a million units and – even allowing for import duties – the estate represented good value for money at £1262. A local farmer would have chosen this Peugeot 403 instead of a Humber Hawk, prompted by the 1962 Autocar report praising the excellence of the handling and steering, plus its rugged construction.
Finally, two fascinating period details of this shot are the signs reading ‘No Waiting’ and the motorcyclist in the pudding basin helmet who resembles a young George Roper (of George & Mildred fame).
The Market Place looks much the same today, but the days of commuting by Austin Cambridge or taking the Ford 100E to Wells for the weekly visit to Lipton’s on the High Street have long since vanished.