The dining experience at Bowcliffe is something we like to share with members so we have decided to launch The Alvis Dining Club at Bowcliffe Hall which will meet every Third Wednesday for lunch in the Drivers Club – July 21st; August 18th; September 15th; October 20th. Why not join us?
If you would like to join us, please leave a reply to make a reservation
Two Three Litres have taken to the road in Switzerland after being restored, a Graber TE21 cabriolet in Lugano and a TC21/100 Tickford in the canton of Zurich.
“I want to let you know that we have finished our work on 25526 / JRD 500. We passed the Strassenverkehrsamt Zürich and got the approval to drive around with it.
It was a great pleasure to restore that car and now we can enjoy the beautiful design of the TC 21 drophead. We are getting many compliments.
We plan to come to England to one of the meetings of the Alvis Owner Club, as soon as Covid allows. It probably might be rather 2022 that 2021, but we will see and let you know.
I want to thank you and your colleagues from the Alvis Owner Club, we got valuable help from many people, especially Malcolm Kindell, Chris Prince, Red Triangle, Jonathan Huggett, Richard Bagge, Alan Mills and Dieter Schätti in Switzerland. The AOC is a great thing and I highly appreciate your work and your help.
I look forward to seeing you and your colleagues soon.
While current Alvis photos profilerate thanks to the smart phone, finding a good period shot by a professional is something archivists enjoy. Even better is when someone sends us one. We can often identify the car but it isn’t always the case, especially if there is no registration number. In the last few days five such photos have come our way and the first came from the great grand daughter of the 1921 owner of a 10/30 who is researching the family history.
This one hundred year old photo of a 10/30 at the Thundersley Hill Climb in Essex comes from https://www.hadleighhistory.org.uk – chassis 6152 registration HJ 16 described in The Vintage Alvis on page 59.
“I’m looking for an Alvis that was owned by my great grandfather. It was used in several speed trials and hill climbs in 1921. I know it’s probably long gone but I’d love to see if someone still loves it. His name was Captain GDF Keddie. he was a very keen racing driver. He also had a Silver Hawk (one of maybe a dozen made) which actually beat Raymond Mays’ Cordon Rouge Bugatti at the Southend Speed Trial of 1922. I’m also hunting down the chap who owns one of the only Silver Hawks left as I’d love to see the car in the flesh.“
The other four photos were sent by Tom Clarke, Rolls-Royce historian. They come from the Jack Barclay Collection and as JB was not an Alvis dealer, are of cars which we assume to have been sold secondhand. Two have registration numbers and the first, although now long gone, has an interesting history.
From the registration BHX 129 this is chassis 11941, a Cross & Ellis Speed 20 SC tourer
This car was mentioned in The Registrar’s Column, ‘Gilding the Lily’ in AOC Bulletin 521 Page 31. “The car had first belonged to a Miss B. J. M. Streather, of Hendon, Middlesex. This was evidently not Miss Streather’s first Alvis. She had competed with a Speed Twenty SA in the 1933 RAC Rally, gaining a 3rd Class award and finishing 74 of 94. By the 1935 RAC Rally she had acquired the SC tourer, obtaining a 3rd Class award, and better still in 1936, with a 2nd Class award.
Alvis Works records tell us that Dr. Grocott acquired the car by November 1938 and kept it throughout the War, and certainly into the fifties.
No matter how perfect and iconic Alvis cars are and will continue to be, there have always been those who have modified particular examples with varying degrees of success. Examples abound of this practice, but perhaps none are more interesting than the modifications carried out on two Alvis cars by Dr. John Grocott of Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent. Grocott was by account a distinguished surgeon, and indeed his applications in the metal show such attention to detail as would have been required in the operating theatre. At some stage Grocott evidently decided to dispense with the Cross and Ellis tourer body and designed a semi-aerodynamic fixed head coupe body of his own, after the pattern of the Embiricos Bentley. Past President Ernest Shenton tells me that there were two other people instrumental in this car’s construction, these being Tom Byatt, of Trentham, together with Bob Bullard. Unfortunately no details have survived of the exact construction methods used, but the machine was certainly spectacular, as the photograph shows.
11941 Speed 20 SC special BHX 1292-7-4
The detailing around the P 100 headlights – not the easiest component to streamline at the best of times.
The other Alvis to receive the Grocott individual attention also had an RAC Rally provenance, being the VdP short chassis tourer chassis 14328 registered ELK 366, which had been entered by one R.A. Robertson in the 1938 event, finishing 19th of 38 in its Class.”
The second Jack Barclay photo looks like a Charlesworth drophead and shows registration number KV 9281 but we have no record of it.
This 1932 Speed 20 SA Vanden Plas saloon is not identified but is similar to Chassis 9414.Another unidentified 1934 Speed 20 from the Jack Barclay collection
The photographer was A E Nelson of 12A George Street, Hanover Square W.1
Chris Heyer also sent in some photos from the Freddy Lincoln Collection:
26976 at Effingham Park circa 1980 -WEE 2 was its original Grimsby registration, now on Mike Baker’s TF21 Dhc 27449 TF21 Dhc at Effingham Park circa 198025110 TA21 Tickford Dhc at Effingham Park, circa 1980 11887 Speed 20 SC Cross & Ellis tourer BLL 105 owned by Freddy Lincoln
Christo bought 26804 in June 1971 at Sieberg, the last Dutch Alvis importer, and it was also the last Alvis sold by Sieberg, all be it a second hand. He drove the Alvis for daily use, always gentleman like, with grey trousers, a blue blazer and brown brogues from K-shoes. Photo and text by Coen van der Weiden
Christo first joined the AOC in 1973 and was a member of the AOC Netherlands. He followed his first TD21 drophead with several Park Ward 3 litres, TD, TE and TF and succumbed to the allure of a Graber coupe and the 4.3 model, once owning EDU 600, the well known short chassis Vanden Plas tourer and finally a 4.3 drophead which he brought to IAW in 2017. He was a frequent visitor to IAW in the UK and took part in various Tours including the memorable 1995 Tour of Switzerland when like a few others got caught at the top of the Furka Pass in a blizzard in his TF facing an icy descent.
Christo and Titia in a sunnier moment of the 1995 Swiss Tour
It was with great sadness we received the news of Christo’s passing last Thursday 10th June at the age of 80.
The ceremony of cremation is on Friday, June 18 at 3 pm (2pm UK time), crematorium Ockenburgh and is on livestream:
As the Drivers Club at Bowcliffe Hall is once again providing a full menu we can offer visitors to the archives the full experience we had become used to. If you would like to make a visit, under prevailing Covid rules, we shall be open to visitors next Wednesday, 16th June.
Visits are on an appointment basis and if you would like to come please leave a reply below with your preferred time of arrival.
The arrival of summer weather in the UK encourages open Alvis use and remembering how to put the top down and the tonneau in place.
Dave Evans sent this from his son’s wedding, depicting my Fraser Reid’s Alvis Speed 20 chassis 11892, donated and driven by Fraser for the day. “The choir is the Oxford Welsh Male Voice Choir, both my son, the groom and I sing in this choir, founded in 1928 by migrant workers who travelled, mostly walked up
The month of May was busy with identifying a large collection of Alvis photos received from a car and photography enthusiast in Holland. Some of them however remain a mystery as there were insufficient clues to to be sure of the chassis number – here are some of them – if you can identify the cars please let us know.
1. 2 TD2146. TD21 at Chantilly7. Speed 208. 9. TC21/100
Richard Tyzack is looking for a single fold flat windscreen and surround and period seats for the restoration of his Speed 20 SB Stonor special, chassis 11218 – if you can help please leave a reply
With the expected easing of restrictions on May 17th now is the time to book your visit to Bowcliffe Hall at Bramham between junctions 44 (Leeds/York) and 45 (Wetherby), have a tour of the archives and visit the Drivers Club for lunch. If you are driving south to north or north to south, take a break on the A1 and pay us a visit – by prior appointment only – leave a reply to make a booking.
Several followers have spotted Edd China on YouTube with Workshop Diaries. He was the mechanic on the TV programme ‘Wheeler Dealers’. Now in his own series, he replaces the lights switch on a Series II TD21 and hopefully there is more to come on the restoration of this drophead in future programmes. It can be seen here: https://youtu.be/5FYLcJ-Aqkg
At the Trust’s AGM held on Zoom last Friday we appointed two new trustees, Martin Wickham and Edmund Waterhouse. Graham Clode and Chris Taylor continue as trustees. John Fox has retired by rotation remaining as the main contact and Administrator. The trustees will meet in person as Bowcliffe Hall in May when restrictions have been eased.
Robin Bendall’s funeral is being held today at 3pm attended by Chris Taylor and the family. Further notes have been added to our post Robin Bendall.
We received a collection of automobilia from Peter Gore who worked at Alvis as an apprentice.
Peter Gore in the back seat of the 1940 12/70 Mulliners tourer driven by his father Bill Gore with Alvis Finance Director George Howell in the passenger seat – this car is now for sale
Bill Gore ran a garage in Kent and was an appointed Alvis Agent and Peter has sent us several documents including the invoice for the TE21 demonstrator which remains in existence with a Follower
Another photo from Peter Gore, part of the line up at an AOC event at the WorksPart of the dealer agreement
Alvis Archive 