MINOR MORRIS FARM HAUL UNEARTHED
Gary Byfield is the manager of York Motor Museum in Western Australia and he recently received a call from local Graeme King, who had a 1929 flat-nose Morris Oxford that he wished to donate to the collection. The car was restored, but just needed the electrics completing.
When viewing the Morris on King’s farm, Byfield asked if there were any other old cars and was shown into an overgrown paddock in which were the remains of a Morris MM, a Morris Oxford chassis, an RMB Riley and a chassis from an unknown racing car. “They were all there when I bought the farm a few years ago,” King told him. “I have no previous records for any of them.”
Byfield collected the virtually complete Morris for the museum, and obtained the 1931 Morris MM for his own collection. “After extracting the car from the weeds and gathering as much of the Morris as we could find – which included the engine, gearbox and most of the bodywork, four wheels, and various bits and pieces he had in a shed – it is now ready for restoration,” says Byfield.
It will have to wait its turn in the long queue of others awaiting renovation work, such as a 1962 Land-rover, a 1982 Mazda RX-7 and a 1923 Model T Ford.
The Morris Minor Group in the UK has told Byfield that the car was exported on 22 June 1931 as a chassis and had a four-seater touring body built by Holden Coach Works and painted powder blue. It is thought to be the youngest engine number of this model on record.