Memory Lane

St Ouen’s Bay, Jersey, 1962

It’s a picture postcard scene. Classics on the beach in the summer of ‘62.

This image comes from a postcard that hundreds of people would have bought while holidaying in Jersey in the Sixties. It’s now part of an exhibition called Britain in Focus: a Photographic History at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, running until June 25 this year.

It was common in those days to tint or re-colour images, even if photographed in colour to start with, as in this case – see the original version in the corner of the spread. These vivid, hyper-real colours were eye-catching on a wire rack of post cards, but created some oddities, like the lilac Standard Vanguard Phase 1 in the far row – grey in the original shot.

Two things stand out, firstly

the peculiar mix of racing cars: a Cooper MKII JAP, what looks like a cut-down pre-war MG, a Jaguar XK120 and another tiny Formula car, perhaps a Cooper MKIX. They’re ready to begin a few oval laps, we think, heading around and back between the sea and the parked cars.

What’s also striking is the high proportion of tiny cars, but they make sense on the lanes and hamlets of a small island. From left, we see a MKI ‘Frogeye’ Sprite, a Mini, an NSU Prinz MKI, II or III; another Mini, a Ford 100E Popular, an Austin A40, a Reliant Regal MKV or VI, an Austin / Nash Metropolitan, a Morris Minor, another Mini, a Sprite MKII or MG Midget, a Wolseley 1500 or Riley 1.5 and finally a 105E Anglia. Highlights from the other side of the track include a Vauxhall PA Velox or Cresta, that pale purple Standard Vanguard, a red Bedford CA pick-up and another Spridget – more egg-yolk-yellow in this version than the pale lemon original.