Memory Lane Oxford’s busy High Street in 1955.

Visit Oxford High Street today and you’ll find historic buildings like All Souls College and the University Church of St Mary the Virgin considerably less grimy than in 1955. The Clean Air Act was still a year away, so these structures would need to wait a while longer before a thorough scrubbing would have a lasting effect.

Of course, the vehicles outside wouldn’t have helped matters – especially that diesel-powered ERF CI truck, essentially a Thirties design. While bicycles were the most popular form of student transport, decrepit old cars were also employed. So were the

Austin 12/4 Eton and Ford Model Y parked on the right, both around 20 years old here, owned by those studying rather than teaching?

Oxford vs Cambridge

The next car along is a Wolseley 6/80. Given that we’re just around the corner from where William Morris built his first car in 1912, it might have been better if it had been the Morris Six the Wolseley was based on. Or, better still, an

Oxford. Ironically enough, the next vehicle along is an Austin A40 or A50 Cambridge. Heresy!

After the two ‘Phase’ Hillman Minxes (a V and a VII or VIII) and a peddling professor, we move to the machines in motion. That’s a Ford Popular 103E following the ERF, while a Standard Ten heads the other way behind yet another Minx from the same years as its parked-up grey sister. And, at last, we do have a Morris – the brown van is a 1939-54 Morriscommercial PV. Phew, got there in the end, William.