A few years ago a wooden carving of an eagle was commissioned for the gardens by the Blackburn Wing….
Carved Eagle at Bowcliffe Hall
This month another Alvis themed item graces the entrance…
A welcome visitor was a rare bird, the first Willowbrook bodied TC108G delivered to a customer in 1956, chassis 25909
To learn more about the Willowbrook and its place in Alvis history click TC108G – Rara Avis
Also arriving at Bowcliffe this month were new additions to the library from our friends in Holland who celebrated forty years of the AOCNL this year. A happy coincidence was the front page photo of one of the rare birds now resident there, a Willowbrook 25925, body 56009.
Finally a reminder that we have arranged a group visit to the Rootes Archive next Sunday 27th November at 10.30 located near Banbury at Wroxton (also home of the Bentley Drivers Club). It will be hosted by Andy Bye, a trustee and Director of Archives for the FBHVC. If you would like to join us, please leave a reply.
A gallery of photos from the current NEC show is now available on NEC Classic Car Shows.
A note from John Godley asked for identification of this car entered in the 2022 Chantilly Arts & Elegance Concours, north of Paris on Sunday, 25th September. The registration number was no help but the ever resourceful Greg Wrapson recognised it as the TL 12-60 Car no 14101 chassis 9226, originally a Cross & Ellis Sports Saloon despatched to Caffyns Eastbourne on 11.12.1931. Original registration was UF 8638. Over the years the original body was lost, the chassis shortened and a simple open body fitted. Our member Tony Simpson took it on and created the existing body, basing the general design on that of the body that coachbuilders Grose of Northampton fitted to the SA 12-50 chassis that they displayed at the 1923 Motor Show
Armed with this information, John researched further – “I read that this car had also been present at the 2019 Chantilly event, and saw that a very similar shot to my own 2022 version had been taken. Then suddenly, ‘hold on’, I was there too!
I needed to search through my own pictures from three years ago, and by fortune found I had seen it before and this time the photo was one near a similarly aged Bugatti, but I’d also photographed the driver’s eye view and the wooden bodywork.
Then, back to searching, I read that it was in attendance at the 2017 event – I wasn’t at that one myself – but found a “FlickR” site reference to it, by chance where that photographer (named ‘eric’), initially focused on the rabbit/hare bonnet mascot. We can now deduce the full registration is: “EG985CN”
Here, in addition, is the reference to this Alvis I found, when in England with its original registration and, it seems, the original bodywork too. This was a short documentary about Oxford, filmed in 1958. The four lower pictures can also be enlarged. https://www.imcdb.org/v959303.html “
Alvis Archive 