Staffordshire’s ‘secret museum’
A diverse collection built up over 45 years by a businessman from Burton-on-trent, Staffordshire, is being extracted and sold through Hansons Auctioneers on 18 March. Hansons car consultant Jim Ronan was called in to value the vehicles and couldn’t believe his eyes when the barn doors opened.
‘It was a jaw-dropping moment for me, like discovering a secret motoring museum,’ he says. ‘I was amazed by the quality and range of vehicles. Our vendor became known in the area as a car collector, and this led to him receiving offers of more classic vehicles. The collection grew and eventually became so big it was housed in an aircraft hangar. Later, the vehicles were transferred to a watertight secure barn.’
Most were in running condition in recent years, because it was the vendor’s habit to choose one to use for a month or so, return it and take another one out. Now, his advancing years and declining health mean that most have been gathering dust for some time. The oldest car in the group is a 1923 Citroën 5CV ‘Cloverleaf’ of just 856cc. Other vintage models include a 1929 Peugeot open tourer, a 1928 Chevrolet doctor’s coupé, a 1926 Austin 12/4 van signwritten for the vendor’s business, and a 1928 Franklin Airman. The Franklin Automobile Company of New York state built cars chiefly memorable for their air-cooled engines. When American aviator Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic with an air-cooled motor in 1927, Franklin played up the connection by introducing an ‘Airman’ sedan.
Later classics in the collection cover a vast range of ages and tastes. There is a sleek 1941 Hudson Six coupé, a 1952 Austin A125 Sheerline owned by the vendor for 40 years, a 1981 Rolls-royce Silver Spirit, owned by the vendor from new, as was a 1973 Rolls-royce Silver Shadow, and a 1997 Jaguar 3.2 Sport. As we went to press the process of extracting the vehicles and moving them to the auction site was about to begin, with some expected to come back to life and others in need of a tow rope. Jim Ronan believes all should be roadworthy again with minimal recommissioning, reflecting the fact that the vehicles are in museum condition rather than being long-abandoned projects.
‘Aside from the inevitable layers of dust, all the vehicles are in remarkable condition given their age,’ he says. ‘They’re being offered without reserve.’