Memory Lane

Join these MG enthusiasts on a pilgrimage to Abingdon in 1967.

The convoy of four MGS heading into the distance past The Broad Face on Bridge Street gives a very, um, broad hint as to where we are. This is MG ground zero, Abingdon in Oxfordshire, where the marque’s cars were built from 1929 to 1980. As this way into town over the River Thames wasn’t on the factory test route, this quartet – green MGB, cream Midget, blue MGB and then hardtop-fitted Midget – may well be enthusiasts on a pilgrimage. Around about, everything else is (mostly) rather less sporty.

A 1965 Rover 2000 P6 is slipstreaming the MGS, having just passed by a slumbering 1964 Vauxhall Cresta PB. An Austin A60 Cambridge is emerging from Thames Street on the right, ready to follow the Rover and MGS past the parked Jaguar Mk2, Austin/ Morris 1100, something frustratingly obscured but pre-war, Ford Anglia 105E and Hillman Husky Series III estate.

Unchanged today

Over on the left, beyond the Cresta, we can make out an Austin A35 van (the rooftop ventilator denotes it’s not an estate), Mini, Vauxhall Victor FB and Ford Anglia. Past the truck, there’s a white Ford Corsair and yet another Anglia, in the same shade as its counterpart on the other side.

This scene is almost unchanged today – even The Broad Face and the Crown and Thistle Hotel – remain, with the same names. And while the factory may be gone, the town is now the HQ of the MG Car Club. So, you’re still just as likely to see some classic MGS around and about.