Classic Car Buyer Magazine CCB 26 June 2013 Back Issue

I’m writing the day after the fabulous ‘100 Years of Morris’ event at Cornbury Park. What a fabulous weekend that was; great fun, extremely well-attended and superbly organised by the Morris Minor Owners’ Club. It was also a totally fitting way of celebrating the centenary of one of Britain’s bestknown and most significant automotive entrepreneurs’ first car. He was “Britain’s Henry Ford” and the person who established Oxford as a centre of car making; which of course it remains up to the present day. As you’d expect, given the popularity of Minors and that the MMOC effectively ‘shared’ its annual club rally with other Morris and Cowley-built car clubs, Minors were in the majority. But that certainly didn’t mean the show comprised row upon row of almost-identical cars. Indeed the overall impression I left with – apart, of course, from the amount of enthusiasm there is for Morrises in particular – was the massive variety of people and classic interests that Minors appeal to. In fact, the Minor section of the event was like a mini-show in its own right, with separate stands for the various groups and registers within the MMOC. There were concours cars, tidy show cars, everyday runners, slightly scruffy everyday runners and a few downright scruffy daily runners! Then there were separate display areas for ex-police Minors, Minor Millions in their distinctive lilac
colour scheme, ex-government Minors, modified Minors, Minor commercials and many, many more. There was also a selection of ex-Post Office Minors. This included, I was pleased to note, one that appeared to be ‘preserved’ in its ‘sold out of service’ condition; in other words, hand-painted in blue but still recognisably ‘ex-post office’ due to yellow paint under the bonnet and retaining the original Post Office Telephones ladder rack.