SEPTEMBER 1961

FLEEETWOOD, LANCASHIRE

A varied group of classic cars and their owners are out to help mark the passing of a maritime era

Rewind just over 60 years ago and the TSS Mona’s Queen worked the final Isle of Man Steam Packet Company sailing from Fleetwood in September 1961 packed with 1193 passengers on-board and, as you can see here, a large number of locals who came to bid the ship a fond farewell. Seen here steaming past the 1840 Beach Lighthouse, which English Heritage had already granted Grade II listed status by the time this shot was taken, the 1946 ferry also attracted a lot of less aquatic transport.

On the left is a Morris Minor of the post-1956 1000 variety. You can see the trafficators on this Moggy behind the doors – four-door cars had them positioned higher, up in the B-pillars. Flashing indicators would have been fitted shortly after the time of Mona’s Queen’s final working journey. The Minor is blocking in a two-door Ford 100E, which we think is an Anglia rather than a Popular owing to the lack of triangular Ford front wing badging. A pre-1959 ‘Highline’ Consul MKII sibling with the less prominent rear fins is next. The Thames van in the service of Wonderloaf – one of Britain’s most popular brands at the time – obscures another twodoor 100E and a 103E Ford Popular.

Next come two pre-1956 Minors and an Austin A30 or A35 – we can’t see enough of the car’s rearend detail to tell, thanks to those pesky cyclists. A pair of Hillman Minx MKVII or MKVIIIS sandwich a Wolseley 15/50, after which there’s a pre- October 1954 Minor contrasting its roly-poly lines with

‘The Mona’s Queen was sold in 1962 and adapted for cruising before being scrapped in 1981’

A GRAND OLD DAME’S LONG LIFE

the sleek Citroën DS or ID in front. It would have been quite exotic for Lancashire in 1961, where Moggies were patently much more the norm.

And what’s going on with the Jaguar MKI in the centre? Is its owner paying for parking or has he just had an ice cream brought to him from the Wall’s trailer kiosk? Either way he’s not getting a great view of

Mona’s Queen. The cutaway spats of this MKI suggest that this was the 210bhp 3.4-litre variant of Jaguar’s 1955-59 compact saloon although 2.4-litre cars did adopt them towards the end of production.

The ferry was sold the following year and adapted for cruising, being re-branded first as the Carina and then as the Fiesta until it was finally scrapped in Greece in 1981. We wonder how many of these cars pictured, which will have only been subject to an MOT once following the introduction of annual inspections in September the previous year, will have survived as long or even outlasted it?

Scant few we would assume, unfortunately…

Designed by Decimus Burton and Captain HM Denham, the neoclassical Beach Lighthouse aids navigation into the Wyre estuary. Opened in 1840, it’s still operational, and can be seen from nine miles away. The TSS Mona’s Queen cost £411,241 in 1946 and was the fourth Isle of Man Steam Packet Company vessel to bear the name. Her steam turbine boasted 8500hp and her top speed was 21 knots. Wonderloaf was the first British sliced loaf thanks to an automatic slicing/ wrapping machine at its Tottenham plant from 1937. People thought it was the best thing since… UK DSS were assembled at Citroën’s Slough premises until 1965. Thereafter British market cars were imported fully assembled from Vaugirard in Paris.