Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Talk about your cars etc here. Keep it sort of sensible and on topic please.
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Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by Warren t claim »

It may come as a bit of a surprise to you but I actually had quite a decent upbringing in a respectable middle class suburb.

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Our house was the first on the left with the stained glass window and Yaris up the driveway.

Let's go back to between 1970 and 86.

The strange this is that although every family had a car the road was deserted during the day, no two car families.

Next door to us lived the Ingham family. Dad was thoroughly respectable and owned a 1973 Rover 2000 in the usual beige. Sadly his only son wasn't so honourable and his dad bought him a newsagents after he was thrown out of the police for dishonesty. Not long after his dad died I was woken to hear a row between him and his mother where he was demanding the P6 as a reminder of his father.

Next door down was the Shepherd family. I was best mates with their son who was two months older than me. To start with they owned an Avenger estate followed by a brace of Vauxhalls. Firstly a P reg Mk1 Cavalier in beige followed by a metallic green T reg Carlton auto and finally a Royale saloon on a V. The dad owned a shipwright business and occasionally we'd be treated to a lift to school in the back of his push started BMC J4 van, a vehicle I'm still a bit obsessed with today. They were the only "seat belt" family in the road, wearing them long before it became law.

Next door down lived "Buttons" Morell along with his wife and son Julian, He got the name Buttons due to being a sales manager for YKK zips and had a company Mk3 Cortina 1.6 XL facelift on an M plate that he covered an astounding 70,000 miles a year in.

The house opposite is more interesting. Mrs Peach first lived there and owned a blue Avenger saloon. Sadly she was a shit driver and was forever scraping it against her gatepost or reversing it into one of our cars. After she moved out a young couple moved in. He was a rep with the obligatory Mk3 Cortina 1.6L and his fit blonde missus drove a 1971 Austin Healey Sprite. They were what you would now call swingers and the husband introduced his bit on the side to a member of our family while shopping in Asda! They moved out less than two years later only to be replaced by the Jones family. He was a chief engineer in the merchant navy and they owned a 1972 Datsun 240K Skyline that was replaced by an Alfa GTV then a Lancia Trevi before he quit Italian and bought a Stratos Silver V reg Cortina 2.3 Ghia auto estate, a nice bit of kit at the time. The happy drinking culture of his family meant that he was usually on a driving ban but didn't really care as he was away at sea most of the year. One memorable evening he managed to outrun the plod in said Cortina meaning half a dozen police cars invaded our road looking for him! He escaped by hiding in the loft.

Next door to them lived Mrs Hall, my English teacher and her daughter. Her husband owned a Riley Kestrel but every day Mrs Hall was picked up by another member of staff, Mrs Rathbone the music teacher, in her red Fiat 126. Mrs Hall's daughter had a boyfriend who drove a white Mk2 Cortina with a black vinyl roof and one night decided to surprise her by stripping nude up our driveway awaiting her return. Sadly Mutha_Claim saw him first, rang the police and by some twist of fate I got top marks in school that year.

Moving next door lived another teacher family from another school, the Morgans. They were big VW fans and owned a succession of Beetles, something that rubbed off on the family because I bumped into their son a few months ago and he's got a Passat and a T2 camper.

I think that's enough from me, your turn now!
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Re: Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by AMCrebel »

I grew up in Derby. My Dad's first car was an Austin A30. He was a pedantic bastard like me, and insisted on pointing out whenever I said there's one like ours that A35s were different.

Mr Mould next door had a P6 Rover 2000. Hw worked away a lot and one time came back from Scotland with a few galvanised trays which he got from a fish market - hime and my Dad used one each to catch the oil leaks from their cars.

The neighbours after the Moulds always had a fancy big Vauxhall. I can't recall them all but I do remember him taking me in his FD Victor to East Midlands Airport so we could have a look at the new Lockheed Tristar.

We had to queue up for ages and then we could walk up into the plane and off the other side. I'd never set foot in a plane, never mind such a big one.

The only car that I was really struck on was a white Mach 1 Mustang up the road - no idea who owned it but I really liked it. It was always parked on the street. It led a big row between me and my best mate who thought that "Mach" was how you spelled 'mark" as in the version, whereas I was pedantically determined Mach was a measurement of the speed of sound.

He went on to become an international bass guitar legend ....... and I er......didn't.
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Re: Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by mercrocker »

Great idea for a thread and one I can relish in adding to. I lived in a cul-de-sac of 25 houses from 1960 to 1981, almost from birth to past 21. It had been mostly pasture with a few houses but in the mid-50s the smallholdings and market gardens were largely sold up and a series of bungalows plus one semi-detached house were in-filled. The area is alongside Southampton Water, adjoining the New Forest and a couple of miles from the Solent coastline. We lived in one of the bungalows....
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Sorry for crap capture from an old cine film but it is all I have to hand. That is Ma and Pa Rocker outside our new house in 1960. I have an almost photographic memory of the shite that lived in the street - even extending back to perhaps 2 or 3 years of age which people tell me is impossible but it ain't, so there.

My earliest recollections indicate a car ownership of perhaps 75percent across the whole street - quite high for the time. I suppose it would be considered Middle Class now but back then these were just working folk who happened to have good jobs, thanks to a nearby Oil Refinery and the majority of them would have moved to the area for that reason. Mum was local, Dad was a Lincolnshire man who met her whilst in the RAF.

So, the shite I grew up with, the houses were never numbered just named and I won't bother with that, just number them in my own sequence....

1. Mr Rennie. Some kind of boffin. MG 1100 followed by Corsair 2000E. Son often visited in a Messerschmitt. Moved out in the 70s, new people (name unknown) had Toledo/Dolomite/Volvo 340

2. The next house had an oval window Beetle which he left outside the gate on the pavement much to Mum's annoyance. In the mid sixties the Mannings moved in. He had a brand new 1966 Austin 1100 in the darkest Connaught Green I have ever seen. Bought another in 1970 but got Leyland-ed and swore off British forever more. Bought a brand new J-reg Bluebird (they were called 1600s then) followed by an entire litany of Datsuns including a Sunny that he rolled five times on the M3. The first 1100 was notable because he sold it to family in London then bought it back for his missus in 1977. It was almost entirely fucked by then and was soon replaced by a faded blue FB Victor. Still remember that ADO16 - FOP484D.

3. The Walshes, had a 300E Thames Van which I used to go to school in the back of when it was raining hard. Later bought a Cortina followed by an Imp Caledonian then assorted Chrysler/Talbot crap. In the early days he used to come home for lunch in the company Consul Farnham.

4. The Davisses. Decrepit F Type Victor, faded Farina Oxford then battleship grey Volvo 145 before surrendering to the Japs with a 140J. Bought the missus a Kadett B saloon which was fairly uncommon for our street. Somebody, I never knew who, used to visit in a Citroen Mehari.

5. The Doe family. Started off with an upright Popular that I don't remember, then a Mk1 Consul (we picked my Mum and sister up in that when she was born). He bought a caravan quite early on in the 60s and the Connie couldn't hack it. Mr Doe got a Hereford but that was nearly as slow so was replaced with a Wolseley 6/110 Mk2, followed by a Victor 2000, Maxi 1750, Mk3 Cortina. Notable household for daughter Shirley's Army boyfriend who used to arrive in a BFG-plated Taunus. The Consul actually ended up with Mr D's father and so made regular return visits to the street.

6. Was our house, Dad had a Series V Minx bought when I was ten years old before which we never had a car. I never liked it much,nor the HB Viva that followed. Nothing wrong with an HB but an 1159cc 2 door for a family of five was never going to work. Mum bought an FD Victor 2000SL estate which Dad eventually replaced with a Rekord coupe - the best thing he ever did in my eyes....

7. The Baines family - no car to start with but eventually bought a two-tone 100E Prefect, followed by a Cortina Mk1 then a Hunter. Mrs B ran off with a barman from the QE2 who lived across the street and had an Alfa 1750. Before that, their middle son had a 2 litre Capri which he used to let me drive around in to "get used to it" - no bloody licence, fuck all!

8. The Souths, he died quite early on but never drove, Mrs S. had a Minor. Later home to the Moores who arrived in a Consul Classic and went through 2 Cortinas and a Victor.

To be continued..........!
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Re: Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by DodgeRover »

This is difficult. Our neighbor Eric had a viva then a marina, finally finishing his driving career in a chevette. The next neighbours along were quite well off and had new cars I can remember a Allegro and a Maestro that cost a fortune in plastic replacement bumpers.
Next to them had a haulage firm and ran a succession of worn out diesels, the usual routine on a cold morning was one being towed up the slipway with a lorry to start it.
Jack was the next along the only car I can remember him having was a terminally rusty MK1 escort with jack up kit fitted, I really wanted this as my first car by it went to the scrapyard as soon as he passed.
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Re: Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by AMCrebel »

The White Mustang was always parked where that grey Clio is on the left.

Just opposite is the Jitty/twitchle/ten foot/ginnel that we used to use to go to school. It reeked of piss and was covered in dog shit. At night in the late 60's and early 70s local skinhead gangs would smash up milk bottles in there.

The tall wall to one side was a row of garages - my Dad rented one for our 1800 - MAL 755E
On top of the wall, there was a line of jagged broken glass cemented into the top to stop the skinheads climbing on to the garage roofs.

I used to worry about going down there on my own because there was a kink in it so there was no easy escape if you were cornered by a gang of older lads - but it wasn't easy to see if anyone was there from either end. Got my bike mugged off me once. It was a shit place to grow up and I am glad we moved when I was 13.

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Re: Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by mercrocker »

Ok, to carry on my rather therapeutic rememberings.....

House No.9 Mr Best. Absolute legend...he looked 60 for two entire decades. Serial car-killer, started off by mashing an RM Riley into a Forest pony one night. I was just at primary school and remember it clanking against the tyres on a Harvey Frost attached to an Austin Gipsy as it was brought back home. Collected by the local scrappy and replaced with another identical car - which led me to believe during my formative years that Insurers simply replaced one's damaged car with an exact replica. After the 2nd Riley expired he bought a ZB Magnette on an Oxfordshire reg - beautiful Varitone one which he promptly replaced with a Minor Traveller. Bah. Not to the Minor, just the lack of Magnette.....Followed by Triumph 1300TC, Mini Traveller, A60 Countryman, the FD Victor that belonged to Mr Doe next door to us and then Mini Van followed by a nearly-new Pick up. I saw the Mini Pickup many years later in another life and shed a silent tear to times passed...

No. 10 - Mr Moody. Don't recall him at all except he moved to the next street (something we said?) taking with him his very early Wedgwood Blue P6 and knocking down the quality count for our road in one fell swoop. A young couple bought the bungalow, they had a hand painted Anglia Van which was lined throughout in that quilted Fablon stuff. Later replaced with a Herald estate, followed by a Wolseley 18/85.

No. 11 Mr Wilson - ex deep-sea diver. No car, just an old Rudge bicycle and a wicker basket on wheels for Mrs W.

No. 12 A horsey couple lived here but don't recall the names. They had a couple of Sunbeam Rapiers - purchased consecutively and in the same colour and were the first people I ever knew to retain a registration (352BOU). Nothing special but highly noticeably to a kid like me who sussed the difference between Series Rapiers. They also had a Thames 400E van for the horse food, I presume. Later on, the Holt family moved in. He was a French teacher and had a two-tone PA Cresta which strangely enough belonged to a bloke over the road before he part-ex'd it at the Main Dealer 20 miles away. XHO854, always remember it. Mr Holt put an "F" oval on the back as he taught Frog but I wanted to rip it off as I considered it unseemly.....The Cresta died and was replaced with a Morris 1100 Traveller which visibly groaned at the weight of Famille Holt and neither the car nor the occupants ever looked happy together. Soon Mr Holt saw sense and returned one day with a Starmist Green FD Victor 3300 Estate.

No. 13 was actually the farmhouse at the end of the road and the family there were entirely Ford-based at the time, Daddy Farmer had an Anglia 1200 estate and the kids had Cortina Mk1s - one of them being the wooded Super Estate variety. Daddy Farmer later sold all his pastureland for housing becoming a millionaire and squandered it on a Champagne Maxi 2 after two decades of Cortina Estates. Steady on, boy....

No. 14 - we are across the dead end street now and at the Nursery business of Mr Harris. He was the original owner of XHO854 - the Cresta at No.12 and had put it in against a new PC Cresta. I very nearly got squashed by that when I ran out from a Mr Whippy van in a sequence worthy of a Public Information Film. Later he had a Triumph 2000 PCR5M and also ran two Bedford CA vans for carrying his flower pots in. Incidentally, the Harris house was famous for once being the digs of Tommy Cooper when he worked locally. I took a picture of a mate outside it wearing a fez once but sadly cannot find it!

I am going to skip the next 3 houses - they were mock-Georgian horrors built on the site of Mr Harris's old glasshouses in the late 1970s. I had a run-in with one of them for starting up and revving my Bonneville outside his house when it conked out at the end of the road. Fucking in-comer. He had an early XJ6 too, hopefully that failed to start on him before long as well.

to be continued, once more, with the proper houses in the street....
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Re: Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by LynehamHerc »

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In the one with the seagreen door.

My brother and I shared the attic, as the 2 bedrooms were for our parents and our sister.

We didn't have a car until I was 17, a Viva HC MWT565K which was then traded in for an Opel Ascona Voyage 1.6S, MUB 907L. Both secondhand of course. I got my MGB whilst we still had the Opel, which apart from automatic choke problems was a brilliant car. There were very few other cars in the street apart from the arrogant twat who lived next door. He was something like a TV repairman who had new Marina and Allegro estates so felt he was better than those of us who ran second hand cars. The Opel was eventually replaced by a new MG Metro, DUA824Y, which Dad and I went halves for. He kept that until 1996, as I'd moved out and started getting company cars, writing it off against a skip on his way down to visit us. I found out about this on the M25 travelling back from Gatwick after a 3am start to get to Riga Airport. Before that there wasn't a trace of rust and it was probably the most reliable car we'd had.
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Re: Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by AMCrebel »

I forgot -
Our cars
My Dad had a (?1953) A30 - 2 door one with trafficators operated by a huge bakelite switch in the middle of the dash.
It would fit on the drive and one day when tiny I was allowed to play in it (Dad got the bus to work)
I managed, at three years old, to release the handbrake and it being on a slight slope I crunched into the gates which were shut behind it. My Dad "mended" the gates by removing them (I had damaged them) and that was the end of my playing at driving.

Next was a Ford Classic, white four door - the later 1500 model which I loved. That was the first car my Ma drove after she learned and she took us kids to some nice places at weekends.

Next came the landcrab 1800 which I also loved.

The 1800 was replaced by a 1970 on the H Hillman GT with high back front seats - which my Dad pedantically corrected anyone who called it a Hunter (these early ones were actually Minx based and just called GT).

After that things must've started going well for my Dad cos we got a nearly new Granada 3000 GXL - L reg.

My Ma got her first car during the landcrab era I think. A 1953 Ford Prefect - the old sit up and beg type with running boards. It cost £25 from a friend of a friend. Although I would love that car now I am ashamed to say I found it old and cranky at the time and hoped my pals wouldn't see me in it. It was as slow as fuck even by the standards of the time and over about 20mph all the instrument needles would shake about so much you couldn't read any of them.

Next for my Ma was 1961 Austin Seven - complete with magic wand gearshift, floor mounted pushbutton starter and no original screenwashers.

Shortly before we moved she got 1967 Minx with cross ply tyres. The starter would jam occasionally and she carried an appropriate sized spanner to turn the shaft on the end when it did. She apparently stunned a male colleague who she was giving a lift home to by doing this one day.
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Re: Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by mercrocker »

See if I can cover the 2nd half of the street in one go....

No.15 I barely remember the family but they had a Sunbeam Rapier. A hovercraft engineer moved in after them with a Consul Classic, this was another car I used to ride to school in. Cortina and 2 Maxis later replaced it in their turn.

No.16/No.17 were identical bungalows, right down to that twin line of slabs straddling a strip of grass that passed for a driveway in the 1960s before the entire country was block-paved. One side was a Pole whose name resembled a bad hand at Scrabble, the other was Mr. Mellor. Outside their identical bungalows, each had an identical Series IIIC Minx in the same two-tone blue. I loved the symmetry of it but this was broken when Mr Polish got a Persian Blue A60 and his neighbour bought a Fiat 124. Later inhabitants would drive a Simca 1000 and a Pinto-engined Granada-shaped Consul.

No.18 was where Vic, the QE2 barman lived. He moved in there when the QE2 was commissioned - previously it was home to another Davis family who where Herald-lickers. As mentioned, Vic had a 1750 Alfa saloon which he often lent to my father in preference to leaving it on the quay at Southampton Docks. My Dad didn't really get on with the gearchange despite me egging him to buy it continually. When Vic retired he bought a brand new Violet fastback.

No.19 was owned by an Irish lady who took in old ladies as a kind of rest-home. No car there although the eldest son ran a long-tailed A55 Cambridge for a while. There were two sons, both well-educated lads who had entirely different endings, the youngest was my age and last heard of in a 10-bedroom villa in the Caymans, the one with the Austin ended up face down in an East-End off-licence with a knife in his back.

No.20/21 were the semi-detached house that was built specifically as a special order from two families where the two women were sisters. One side, Fred, had a Pompadour blue 100E (complete with spares car), then a blue Minx in that special Rootes colour that faded within 2 years followed by a Pageant Blue Marina 1300 estate. 21 years of motoring misery in doom blue..... Roy next door was more flamboyant - his Minxes were two-toned and followed by a bright red Mk1 Sceptre. He was the other caravanner in the street and replaced the Humber with a six-pot Landcrab when the 'vans got bigger. His wife had a Bracken Marina Coupe but the daughter's boyfriend used to grace the street with a Daytona Yellow Mini Marcos.

No.22 was an old fella I never really knew although he always said "Hullo" as folk did back then. He once had a Vanguard Station Wagon which I barely remember but mostly an Austin Seven Mini (XTP811) which was almost as decrepit as the ones in my garden later on.

No.23 again were a bit aloof - a bearded boffin-looking type with his elderly Mum. She had a Cortina Mk1 Estate, he had a Saab 96.

I am going to save the last couple for another time. One in particular is worthy of a book in terms of wobshite and became a good friend of mine (eventually best man at my first wedding)......
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Re: Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?

Post by mercrocker »

AMCrebel wrote: Fri Oct 23, 2020 11:26 am I forgot -
Our cars
My Dad had a (?1953) A30 - 2 door one with trafficators operated by a huge bakelite switch in the middle of the dash.
It would fit on the drive and one day when tiny I was allowed to play in it (Dad got the bus to work)
I managed, at three years old, to release the handbrake and it being on a slight slope I crunched into the gates which were shut behind it. My Dad "mended" the gates by removing them (I had damaged them) and that was the end of my playing at driving.

Next was a Ford Classic, white four door - the later 1500 model which I loved. That was the first car my Ma drove after she learned and she took us kids to some nice places at weekends.

Next came the landcrab 1800 which I also loved.

The 1800 was replaced by a 1970 on the H Hillman GT with high back front seats - which my Dad pedantically corrected anyone who called it a Hunter (these early ones were actually Minx based and just called GT).

After that things must've started going well for my Dad cos we got a nearly new Granada 3000 GXL - L reg.

My Ma got her first car during the landcrab era I think. A 1953 Ford Prefect - the old sit up and beg type with running boards. It cost £25 from a friend of a friend. Although I would love that car now I am ashamed to say I found it old and cranky at the time and hoped my pals wouldn't see me in it. It was as slow as fuck even by the standards of the time and over about 20mph all the instrument needles would shake about so much you couldn't read any of them.

Next for my Ma was 1961 Austin Seven - complete with magic wand gearshift, floor mounted pushbutton starter and no original screenwashers.

Shortly before we moved she got 1967 Minx with cross ply tyres. The starter would jam occasionally and she carried an appropriate sized spanner to turn the shaft on the end when it did. She apparently stunned a male colleague who she was giving a lift home to by doing this one day.

Great memories there....I managed to dislodge the handbrake on my Grandad's Farina Wolseley on Portsdown Hill (known to some on here from AS meets at Mick's Burger Van) when I was about five years old. Sat at the wheel I suddenly became aware that the bloody thing was moving. Never saw Grandad move so quick to grab the handbrake which was on the driver's door side to make matters worse!

Good work on the Hillman pedantry, too, the same thing also applied to the first Arrow Estate which was also known simply as Hillman Estate (the first Hunter shared frontal dentistry with the Arrow Minx). Not until later did they cough to it being a Minx estate.

Finally, I recall walking home from church with my Dad when a friend of his offered us a lift in his upright Prefect. For some reason, known only to me, I simply wouldn't get in it. I still recall my Dad's frustration at having to walk home cos me....
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