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Harold Wilson's collection

Harold Wilson was a pioneer of the classic car movement and still rescues cars wherever he finds them. We caught a glimpse of his sprawling collection concealed by the iron doors of an old warehouse in an otherwise unremarkable Port Talbot backstreet. Meet ‘Mr Barn Find’...

Harold Wilson was a pioneer of the classic car movement and still rescues cars wherever he finds them. We caught a glimpse of his sprawling collection concealed by the iron doors of an old warehouse in an otherwise unremarkable Port Talbot backstreet. Meet ‘Mr Barn Find’...

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‘I collect

everything’

Harold Wilson was a pioneer of the classic car movement and

still rescues cars wherever he finds them. Meet ‘Mr Barn Find’

Words SAM DAWSON Photography CHARLIE MAGEE

Harold Wilson’s vantage

point as a roofing contractor

led to some of the best

discoveries for his collection

28

29



[Harold Wilson]

Isuspect you’re wondering how this all started?’ asks

Harold Wilson as he hauls open the iron doors of the

old warehouse and lock-up that conceals his sprawling

collection in an otherwise unremarkable Port Talbot

backstreet. ‘Well, when you’re a roofing contractor you see

what people keep in their back gardens. That’s how I found

a lot of them.’

Captivatingly, he recalls a long-lost world before the

term ‘classic car’ even existed, and the mistake that set

him down his lifelong path. ‘I was a Scoutmaster in the

Sixties and I was emerging from a church parade when I

saw a rusty old car under a canvas sheet. It was owned by

Tony, another Scoutmaster. He told me I could have it for

10 shillings [50p] because a halfshaft had broken. I roped in some

Scouts to push it to my house but there was a minor riot when my

wife saw it, so I took it down to the docks to store.

‘A few days later it had gone, I assumed for scrap. But ten

years later, when the tide receded, I saw the chassis poking out

of the mud, so I dragged it out and sold it to a chap in Bristol for

£250. The oil and mud had protected it – it really was like new

underneath. Its ‘KV’ registration plate stuck in my mind, so I

started researching it. It turned out that during the war Singer’s

three factory Le Mans racers were sent to Wales to escape the

bombing in Coventry. All were registered with KV plates. The

whereabouts of two was known, but the other one had been sold

on because it had a broken halfshaft…

‘It was then that I realised how important it is to preserve

history and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. I collect

everything to do with transport, from the horse to the aeroplane.

One day I hope to open a proper working museum.’

1929 Hillman 14

‘In the Sixties there were only a few of us who liked old cars – no

clubs or shows,’ Wilson says. ‘We’d meet at The Bear in Cowbridge

and one day I said, “I’m fed up with my car – anyone know of any

others?” Someone said there was a Hillman in Llanelli, so I went

to look at this lovely old saloon. I bought it and drove it for years.’

Today the enormous Hillman hides under a tarpaulin in the

corner of the lock-up, looking like a stereotypical barn-find. ‘It’s

never been restored,’ says Wilson. ‘I haven’t driven it for 20 years,

but I turn the engine regularly to make sure it doesn’t seize.

‘This car made me vow I’d never buy a new car. I mean, just look

at the quality,’ enthuses Wilson, opening

the rear-hinged back door and gesturing at

the wood and leather interior. ‘I suppose

I bought them at the right time, in that

they were cheap. But I don’t see them as

investments – they’re pieces of history.’

1934 MG PA

Nearly all Wilson’s cars are undergoing restoration work, but his

distinctive blue MG has seen the most intense activity recently

because he’s rebuilding it for the second time. ‘I first encountered

it in a garage in the Sixties – it was in for a decoke and repairs to a

front wing, but the student who owned it couldn’t afford to pay, so

the garage wouldn’t let him have it back.

‘I went to see him and bought the car for £20 then went back to

the garage and asked for a decoke, the valve clearances setting,

the wing straightening and a respray. That came to £50, so for £70

I owned an MG.

‘I first restored it in the Seventies, but one winter’s day in 1976 I

left it outside and some kids accidentally kicked a football through

the hood. People remember that year’s heatwave, but in the

winter we were hit by incredible snows. I had no idea there was a

hole in the roof, so when the snow thawed the interior was soggy

and rotting. I put the car away and didn’t do anything with it. I’m

restoring it now with my son. I was about to sell it, but he said he’d

always loved this car and stopped me.’

1934 Rolls-Royce 20/25 Barker Continental Tourer

‘You could have bought Rolls-Royces for £10 each post-war – the

horsepower tax cost more than the car,’ says Wilson. ‘This one

was ordered by diamond merchants Oppenheimer and stored in

an underground garage off Harley Street in London. The area was

blitzed in 1939 and the entrance was blocked. It wasn’t uncovered

until 1955, when Bill Medcalf pulled it out and took it to the south

of France. He used it until 1963, when I bought it.’

The 20/25 is also undergoing complete restoration, although

Wilson reckons it’s in better condition than its flaking paint

suggests. ‘It’s all aluminium – no steel – so there’s no rust.

‘Barker’s Continental Tourer is a rare and beautiful design, with

a neater tail, a spare wheel each side and an extended bonnet to

accommodate three toolkits. When I stripped the interior I found

spent machine-gun shells from 1934. Diamond merchants, eh?’

Daimler Conquest Roadsters

Wilson has become an authority on Daimler’s unusual sports car –

he owns five of them and has traced the histories of all but a tiny

handful of the 65 built in order to co-author the definitive book on

the model with Dennis Mynard. The sole factory racer, ORW 655,

originally driven by Ken Wharton, is the most notable example.

‘I suppose I bought them at the

right time, in that they were cheap’

The quality of his

Hillman 14 prompted

Wilson to vow he’d

never buy a new car

car name the collector

Wilson owns five of the

65 Conquest Roadsters

built by Daimler, including

works racer ORW 655

Barker-clad 1934

Rolls-Royce 20/25

is rust-free thanks

to its aluminium

construction

After filling with snow

in 1976 this 1934 MG

PA is undergoing its

second rebuild

1929 Morris Cowley

cost Wilson £20 plus £5

for a box of chocolates

Among car parts, horse

brasses and a model of RMS

Titanic, Wilson has artwork

for a stillborn roadster

penned by Ken Atwell

Keeping them running

‘I’m no mechanic,’ confesses Wilson – and it

comes as a surprise to hear him say it. ‘But

I’ll tell you something: AA mechanics love

cars like these – it’s often the only chance

they get to work on something simple and

straightforward.’

He adds, ‘I have a friend called Graham

Jones who’s a mechanic, and we get a car

roadworthy from time to time as a hobby.

He’s a clockmaker, with such an intricate

eye for detail. People give him broken

watches all the time and he gets them

working again, so for him a car is pretty

simple in comparison.

‘For me, though, it’s just a case most of

the time of saying, “Let’s get this one on the

road,” usually one car at any one time – and

we don’t even have to MoT them any more.’

31



1951 Bentley Mark

VI stirs poignant

memories for Harold

Wilson of his late wife

THE COLLECTION IN FULL

1919-26 Morris Cowley ‘Bullnose’

(‘Constructed from bits

of various Bullnoses’)

1929 Hillman 14

1929 Morris Cowley

1930 Morris Minor Culverhouse

Cross coachbuilt saloon

1934 MG PA

1934 Rolls-Royce 20/25

Continental Tourer by

Barker

1951 Bentley Mark VI 4½-litre

saloon by Mulliner

Daimler Conquest Roadsters x 5

1970 Morris Oxford

1978 Attwell-Morgan

‘Lady Docker, one of Daimler’s owners in the pre-Jaguar era, saw

how successful Jaguar’s XK sports cars had become and thought

it was crazy that Daimler had nothing similar, so she ordered her

engineers to build something for the 1953 London Motor Show,

which was just six weeks away. They fashioned a body out of solid

wood and used it as a buck to build this car around. It still has

some blocks of wood lodged in the rear wings.’

1929 Morris Cowley

This car has lived an unusual life. ‘In 1972 I took my coachbuilt

Cowley saloon for a cylinder rebore and the mechanic remarked

that he hadn’t seen an engine like this since he worked on “the

chimney-sweep’s car”. I asked him who he meant and he directed

me to David John Davis of Maiden Street. I knocked on the door and

asked the man there if he was the chimney sweep. He demanded,

“Who told you that?” and slammed the door in my face.

‘I went back to the mechanic and he said, “You shouldn’t have

gone there all dressed up – he’ll think you’re the taxman!” It

turned out he was working cash-in-hand. I went back, explained

who I was, and we went to his garage. At the back was this Cowley

tourer, full of coal. I offered £20, a lot of money for a car like that

then, but he wanted more. I only had another fiver on me, so I

offered him that too and said, “And this is for chocolates for your

wife.” She was there and he accepted the offer.

‘It had only 5754 miles on the clock and when I renovated the

car I found the cooling fan had been fitted the wrong way – and

he’d laid it up because it kept overheating. He’d been in the Home

Guard during the war and as a prank they all dressed in black and

went parading round town in the Cowley, pretending to be Hitler.

They were arrested as German spies and spent a night in the cells

– he didn’t use it much after that. Bizarrely, I found a coupon for a

free 6000-mile service at Baud’s Garage, which still existed. When

I turned up the guy behind the counter said, “I don’t know who

could service it – they’re all bloody dead!”’

The car found fame in Eighties TV series The District Nurse after

the producers asked Wilson to source a car for star Nerys Hughes

to drive. ‘It was “damaged” in one episode, so they used glassfibre

wings and a smashed headlight. I’ve still got them.’

1951 Bentley Mark VI 4½-litre Mulliner ‘Long Tail’ saloon

This car is close to Wilson’s heart. ‘My wife was diagnosed with

cancer in 1991 and didn’t want to be sitting around at shows

in some draughty old tourer, so I decided we needed a refined

saloon. I rang Harry Griffiths at Beaulieu and he told me about this

Bentley, originally owned by the director of Yale Keys in America

– who specified a raised rear roof for his top hats – and then by a

doctor who used to go to the Proms in it.

‘The doctors gave my wife only a few months to live, but she

lived for another three years and in that time we went touring all

over Britain and Europe in this car.’

Ken Atwell designed

and built this high-tech

Morgan for his daughter

1978 Atwell-Morgan

This Morgan-based roadster is Wilson’s weekend fun-car and

is unique. ‘Ken Vivian Atwell – one of the men behind the Ford

GT40 and creator of the KVA continuation GT40s – wanted to

build a GT40 for his daughter, but she said she preferred a Morgan.

Atwell visited Morgan’s factory and ordered all the components of

a 4/4 to be sent to the KVA factory in Swansea so he could build

it to his specifications. The wooden body frame was replaced by

an aluminium spaceframe chassis, the traditional Morgan sliding

pillars went in favour of Triumph TR4 suspension, the track is

wider – more like a Plus 8’s, with wire wheels imported from

America – and it’s got a Lotus-Cortina engine.

‘Ken’s proud to be a Welsh car manufacturer, so when the DVLA

tried to register it as a kit car he growled through gritted teeth, “It

is NOT a special.” So officially it’s an Atwell-Morgan – the only one.’

Wilson is good friends with Atwell, who still lives locally. He

digs out drawings for a minimalist roadster Atwell penned in 1978.

Featuring a Rover V8 in a car weighing just 750kg, it predates the

similar Westfield SEight by more than a decade. Sadly, it never

made production.

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