Cars

I was on my way to the little village of Ellerton, just south of York but I thought I’d take a little detour to Stamford Bridge; the site of a famous battle.

I took a wrong turn and ended up in a tiny village and passed a big house with this car parked on the gravel drive. I stopped and grabbed my camera phone.

Two ladies were standing in the bay window so I pointed to the car and my phone and mouthed, ‘Can I take a picture?’ They nodded. I took a couple of shots and then the 84 year old owner came out and he started the straight six engine. A 1948 Triumph. Wonderful!

It sounded as good as a modern supercar.

We got chatting and he said, “Follow me.”

He got the garage keys and showed me this..

I was gobsmacked! “Ah, there’s more!” He said. A Model T Ford.

Now I was speechless. His son lives in Australia and runs a vintage car garage. His daughters want their aged dad to stop driving but he flatly refuses.

I bid him farewell and thanked him for the tour and his kindness to a complete stranger, I hope he is careful with who he lets into that garage!

He said, “Wait, there’s one more.”

A 1949 MG!

We got talking about music. He used to play jazz with a prodigy of Django Reinhardt and took me into his house and played me some of his tracks recently put onto CD by his grandchild. Marvellous.

Then he asked me if I knew anyone who wanted to buy a grand piano. He has one that was left to him by a dying friend. “He lent it to Duke Ellington when he played in London. I was going to give it to the Village Hall but my grandchildren looked it up on the internet, it’s a 1914 Bechstein and it’s worth £114,000.”

He wasn’t kidding..

He told me to call back anytime. I would but I don’t have the faintest idea where I was and even if I did, I wouldn’t reveal it here.