It Might Just Work
Peter Simpson and Rowena Bishop embraced a leap of faith
It took a leap of faith to convert this Forties Fordson into a tea van.
Put simply, I retired from a career in IT to follow a dream. The dream started to become a reality on May 16, 2017 when I purchased ‘Joseph’ a 1949 Fordson 7V and embarked on a journey to create a vintage mobile catering business. The 7V had actually been a catering van already… I was fascinated by its story and I traced it back to when it was sold at auction in 1990. It was restored in red and operated around Lowestoft as Mrs Miggins Pie Shoppe. It was subsequently sold at the end of 1991, then some years later ended up in the John Mould Collection in Reading. Sold as part of the John Mould auction in 1998, registered as ERX 99, it then appeared for restoration again in 2007 with David Wall in Norfolk with the registration RSJ 195.
Given a new green livery, it traded as Mrs Miggins Pie Shoppe once more and was seen at many events including the Goodwood Revival in 2013. I found it in 2017 and its been pretty intense ever since. It has had a full body restoration and respray and we’ve rebuilt all the running gear, too. It has a double wheel conversion and is running a Ford Cologne 2.3 V6 and automatic box – it has to do some mileage, we really do drive it, and the original 3.6-litre ‘nailhead’ V8 engine wasn’t with it when I bought it anyway. Inside I have fitted a Francino coffee machine, Zenith grinder, Burco boiler, Mainho 800 griddle and two fridges. Last to go in were the twin sinks. A new vinyl roof was also fitted to what we believe is the last 7V panel van of its type in the UK.