An old family friend
Our recent From The Archive article on three-wheelers has brought back many happy memories for readers. One of those is Tony Gutteridge who remembers his father and a machine that became a member of the family.
My dad, Alfred ‘Dusty’ Gutteridge, was born in August 1909 in the village of Luton on the edge of Chatham in Kent (now part of the urban sprawl they call Medway). I think he became interested at a very young age in the mechanical revolution that was going ahead in the United Kingdom at that time, for he acquired a number of early motorbikes during his youth, including a 1916 Humber 3½hp and an MMC, which only made motorcycles until 1904.
He married my mum, Dora, at Christmastime in 1935 and then built his own house – surprise, surprise he named it ‘Smallheath’! Gloria, the first of my older sisters, was born in 1938 and then transport became an issue for the growing family. So Dusty purchased a second-hand 1934 Raleigh Safety Seven three-wheeled car – AYH 688 – for the princely sum of £11. This car was fitted with a 742cc Jap V-twin sidevalve engine feeding the rear wheels via a Sturmey Archer gearbox with three speeds and reverse and prop-shaft/differential. The engine had exposed valve springs and ignition was by coil.
War came along and, as Dad worked as a plumber in HM Dockyard Chatham repairing war-damaged ships, he was excused callup as this was a ‘reserved’ occupation. The Raleigh was used as transport during the war with an expanded family when my other sister, Mavis, was born in 1940.
I came along in July 1945 and so I grew up with this old three-wheeler. My earliest memories are going to visit my grandmother in the middle of winter in the freezing cold with the wind whistling around my ears from the badly fitting hood and watching the road go by through the holes in the wooden floorboards!
During the 1950s this old car took us everywhere from the Kent coast to further afield. One trip to Hastings involved repairing four punctures at the side of the road. (A couple of these were probably caused by pinched inner tubes from the previous repair!)
To take advantage of the car tax system of the time, the weight of the Raleigh had to be kept below, I think, seven hundredweight (cwt). Every so often my father would remove anything in the car that could be easily taken out – seats, hood and anything else – and take the vehicle to a local workshop in Rochester that had a weighbridge. The certificate given would be included with the tax renewal form to obtain the four-monthly tax disc. (In those days many motorists took their cars off the road during the winter months).
In 1960, under the powers of the Road Traffic Act (1956), the then Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples, introduced the 10 Year Test. That was the end of the old girl as it became uneconomical to get the car to MoT standard. AYH 688 was parked in the back garden alongside the shed for a couple of years and then all the aluminium parts and steel or iron items sold for scrap. The rest was put down a redundant cesspit in the front garden! Dad then purchased his first proper four-wheeled car, a Hillman Minx Californian which of course is another story. That was just before I followed in his early footsteps and entered the world of two-wheeled motoring with a Norman Lido.
Some people who probably have never owned or driven a Safety Seven have severely criticised this car but, as far as I’m concerned, it provided wonderful family transport for 21 years. What more could anyone want?