S A Barrett's Sussex shite spots: 2022/23 catch-up

[vulgalour]

Rear lights on those Wolseleys are some of the best.

[keef]

26 minutes ago, barrett said:

Here's another two for @keef. On the list?

Got both, thanks.

Nice to see second one was saved as it appeared on here some years back. :-

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x58/Spottedlaurel/Spotteds Spottings/PA274112.jpg

[Spottedlaurel]

9 hours ago, barrett said:

Well I must say I'm slightly underwhelmed by the response to what I thought was a SOLID GOLD SPOTS UPDATE but no worries, I'll power on through. Perhaps these will elicit a better reaction?

.......................................

Here's another two for @keef. On the list?

Regrettably spots threads seem to have died a death on here. Mine dates back to 2006 (with several years' worth of blanks due to photohosting shenanigans, before I settled on Flickr) but I haven't bothered to update it for sometime. If you want to post photos of old rubbish and get into some discussion about it Flickr is much better.

You've found some great stuff there, I haven't had the excuse to do that sort of thing for a while and interesting, non'classic' stuff is definitely thinning out around here. Great to see it's still around in London, I too enjoy thinking about the ownership and stories as to why they've survived.

I imagine Keef will know about the Wolseleleley, I got a photo of it in Suffolk back in the '00s when it randomly turned up at a country garage:

1975 Wolseley 2200 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Edit: Keef beat me to it

[Vantman]

Good spots Mr B,i wish i had the ability to walk further and pursue an interest like this. 

I think this is a Commer of some sort,i will delve further--

 

[skoda_fan]

56 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Regrettably spots threads seem to have died a death on here. Mine dates back to 2006 (with several years' worth of blanks due to photohosting shenanigans, before I settled on Flickr) but I haven't bothered to update it for sometime. If you want to post photos of old rubbish and get into some discussion about it Flickr is much better.

You've found some great stuff there, I haven't had the excuse to do that sort of thing for a while and interesting, non'classic' stuff is definitely thinning out around here. Great to see it's still around in London, I too enjoy thinking about the ownership and stories as to why they've survived.

Trouble is it's extremely rare to spot anything  even vaguely interesting. I never spot anything of that quality around here. So Mr Barrett sir, your spots ARE very much appreciated. Please keep them coming. This is by far my favourite spotting thread on here. Yes odd that there's interesting stuff in London. I've no reason to go there much these days, but always noticed that in pre camera phone days. My best spot in recent times was an abandoned Ford Pop in a side street somewhere opposite the entrance to Camden Market. It was a scene straight out of the sixties, but sadly no pic and I doubt it's still there now.

[skoda_fan]

11 minutes ago, Vantman said:

Good spots Mr B,i wish i had the ability to walk further and pursue an interest like this. 

I think this is a Commer of some sort,i will delve further--

 

Morris Commercial. The Post Office used to own fleets of them.

[phil_lihp]

I'd have assumed all the old tat would be long gone from London now, nice to see that if anything the opposite is true.  Marvellous spots and a top mark for effort on the Google Earth-find SD1.

I have recently discovered that an abandoned scrapyard 3 miles up the road which I last explored in about 2003 and which was turned into a housing estate shortly after is actually still partly extant in the woodland which surrounded it, I'm trying to find out how to access it for an explore.

[inconsistant]

On 5/26/2020 at 1:09 PM, RobT said:

I've spotted that Safrane on my manor a few times too.

The owner of the Rivoli Ballroom nearby clearly has a thing for British cars (or someone else who just likes to park their cars there).  A pair of Rovers these days, 75 and R8 flavour last time I paid a visit, but also found this pic on the web.  Credited to John Lord on Flickr.

 

[mitsisigma01]

Quality spotting, less is more but more is better, deserving more like's, ??????

[RobT]

Awesome spots.  The ones on the previous page are something else.  That old Rolls rotting away in a front garden, and the Viva Escort combo with bits of cardboard stuck in various places are my favourites.  I also use Google to case out spotting locations, but only as a guide i.e. if I spot a bit of tat I take the chance that the general area will yield some gems.  So in that sense I lack your commitment to the cause of documenting old shite.

[barrett]

Thanks guys. That's the kind of positive reinforcement my ego craves. As a reward, here are two more from yesterday

This A-reg Sherpley is particularly appealing and just the sort of thing I'd drive round in in my fantasy world scenario of having a small private income and doing house clearances 'just for fun'. Annoyingly I saw another one this morning, on the move, an ex-BT van in yellow, but my phone had run out of battery so no pic

This Jag was just round the corner, more or less. A proper old shed, and rougher than it looks here. Note Withnail-spec wiper set up. I know of Mks I and III XJ6s nearby, too, which will be getting snapped in due course

[vulgalour]

2 hours ago, barrett said:

 Annoyingly I saw another one this morning, on the move, an ex-BT van in yellow, but my phone had run out of battery so no pic

 

How ironic.

[JimH]

On 8/22/2020 at 8:35 AM, Vantman said:

Good spots Mr B,i wish i had the ability to walk further and pursue an interest like this. 

I think this is a Commer of some sort,i will delve further--

 

That is a Morris MRA1. Superficially like a flavour of Morris Commercial but the military version with four wheel drive, a voracious appetite for fuel and a sweet as a nut straight six. Nice wagons.

[mitsisigma01]

2 hours ago, barrett said:

Thanks guys. That's the kind of positive reinforcement my ego craves. As a reward, here are two more from yesterday

This A-reg Sherpley is particularly appealing and just the sort of thing I'd drive round in in my fantasy world scenario of having a small private income and doing house clearances 'just for fun'. Annoyingly I saw another one this morning, on the move, an ex-BT van in yellow, but my phone had run out of battery so no pic

This Jag was just round the corner, more or less. A proper old shed, and rougher than it looks here. Note Withnail-spec wiper set up. I know of Mks I and III XJ6s nearby, too, which will be getting snapped in due course

But are they in Sussex or are they from elsewhere.... 

If you want to get a picture of a hopefully only temporarily broken Mitsubishi Sigma I know where there is one ?. no charge, if you can fix the clutch you can take as many pictures as you like ??????

[phil_lihp]

Loving that Freight Rover - hasn't been on the road since 2007 according to the DVLA, looks amazingly solid considering.  Must be an inch thick with underseal.

[barrett]

Yeah looks amazingly un-crispy doesn't it? I'd love to just clean the windows and stick some tyres on it and drive round as-is. Even washing it would kill the vibe I reckon.

[timolloyd]

Hopefully the Jag belongs to a 1970s villain who’s recently driven it back from Spain, having been on the run for 45 years or so.

[barrett]

right, here is a small further selection of motoring delights*

This Traction was on a truck in Asda car park. Reg looks familiar...

Another trailer-bound car. Can't remember ever spotting one of these in the wild before. Not sure what the future holds for this one, but I suspect it may involve a short burst of glory round an oval-shaped circuit

Here's a lesson in why one should always carry a camera. I went out without my phone (no battery, left my charger at home) and saw these three. Photos taken on GF's ancient iphone so a bit grainy. This excellent Sheerline was behind a block of flats and looked to have taken up permanant residence. Is that a later plate, or were these really being built in the 1960s?

This lovely Volvo was outside an antiques shop, appropriately. I genuinely think I'd be happy to sack off all my other old cars and just run one of these as a daily. I've actually found a few reasonably-priced examples in France, so maybe that's an adventure for next year.

The famous Catford Escort. I just happened to be caught in a traffic jam crawling past this, so I can tick it off the list at last

By pure chance, the following day (phone now fully charged) I stumbled on this booted companion in a surprisingly similar situation. The owner saw me out the window and started banging on the glass and shouting at me for taking a photo, which I think is actually the first time I've ever been 'caught' snapping a car in the 11 years I've actively been doing it.

If I don't get quarantined the next batch might hopefully be from more exotic climes. Watch this space!

[keef]

That Volvo looks lovely!

[mitsisigma01]

I snapped this one a few weeks ago in the same location, when did you snap it? Hopefully not getting bangered, someone on here yesterday found a post on twitter or some other forum, didn't sound like it was going oval

[barrett]

I photographed the Opel (or is it a Vauxhall? Conflicting badges!) a couple of days ago. I guess it's something to do with the house over the road with several '80s Fords on the drive, but they never seem to move and all look pretty dead

[LightBulbFun]

30 minutes ago, barrett said:

Here's a lesson in why one should always carry a camera. I went out without my phone (no battery, left my charger at home) and saw these three. Photos taken on GF's ancient iphone so a bit grainy. This excellent Sheerline was behind a block of flats and looked to have taken up permanant residence. Is that a later plate, or were these really being built in the 1960s?

been robbed of its plate sadly,

between the late 1970's and the early 1990's when a vehicle from before suffix plates was robbed of its plate, they would simply be issue unused A suffix plates as they had lots of them lying around (with some vehicles in the early 80s even getting B suffix plates, but thats quite rare however see EFD326B as an example, I have heard of some pre suffix vehicles being issued C suffix plates even but I have not found/seen any examples of that)

but starting in the mid 1980s-1990s they introduced age related plates for suffix-less cars finally and you can request an appropriate age related from the DVLA if you have such a vehicle previously issued an A suffix replacement plate

 

 

keep up the good work on the spots, I do throughly enjoy reading this thread when you post to it  some pretty amazing/neat/cool/autoshite spots!

[barrett]

Hmm, well whilst I abhor people robbing number plates, I can sort of understand why somebody would take JOE 67 off a car which would have been worth about 50p in 1990 and is appealing to about 12 people in the whole world

[LightBulbFun]

2 minutes ago, barrett said:

Hmm, well whilst I abhor people robbing number plates, I can sort of understand why somebody would take JOE 67 off a car which would have been worth about 50p in 1990 and is appealing to about 12 people in the whole world

Yeah same, im not surprised either and to be fair it is probably how it survived,

since to rob a plate off a vehicle it needs to (or back then at least) be MOTed and taxed, so they would have had to have get it through an MOT (although im sure the less scrupulous people just used a Bent MOT or something such)

I know this is how @RayMK's Reliant regal managed to survive that period

[keef]

4 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

been robbed of its plate sadly,

but starting in the mid 1980s-1990s they introduced age related plates for suffix-less cars finally and you can request an appropriate age related from the DVLA if you have such a vehicle previously issued an A suffix replacement plate

I would guess the earlier photo was just such a vehicle :-

DSL282

[LightBulbFun]

9 minutes ago, keef said:

I would guess the earlier photo was just such a vehicle :-

DSL282

its OSL282  (I stuck DSL282 in and got a ford, was quite confused for a moment! LOL)

not quite in this case, vehicles imported/first registered before A prefix plates came about in 1983, where always given a registration plate according to their date of first registration (so if it was imported in 1983 it could well have been given a Y suffix plate! but like A suffix plates you can request and appropriate age related plate these days)

with the introduction of A prefix plates they introduced age related plates for such vehicles (and the Q plate was also introduced)

so the Traction avant having been imported in 1985 has had an age related plate from day 1 although it was somehow robbed of its first age related plate (I guess it did not get marked as non transferable)

[RayMK]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Yeah same, im not surprised either and to be fair it is probably how it survived,

since to rob a plate off a vehicle it needs to (or back then at least) be MOTed and taxed, so they would have had to have get it through an MOT (although im sure the less scrupulous people just used a Bent MOT or something such)

I know this is how @RayMK's Reliant regal managed to survive that period

Mine was owned by the son of the original owner when it was retired after nearly 100.000 miles and twenty years of service. The original reg was not robbed during retirement. It was simply sold to a friend who put it on an Audi Quattro and over the years it was moved/sold on to various vehicles whose owners considered that the number held some relevance to their name or business. Meanwhile, the Reliant remained in the safe keeping of the son until a leading light in the Raleigh Safety Seven and Early Reliant Owners Club took a liking to it. He was based in Wales. He kept it for a while then sold it to a chap who beat me to it - I had also seen the advert. Meanwhile, more years passed and the new owner also found he had insufficient free time to deal with this worn, tatty, not particularly sought after vehicle.  Credit to him, he did not just offload it to a local scrappy (I had seen a couple of these in a scrapyard near Bicester at the time), instead taking it with him when he moved from near London to just 5 miles from me in Northants, then offered it for sale.  2nd time lucky, I snapped it up in 1992. In 2005 I completed its slow refurbishment and it's been on the road and usable for most of the time since, proudly wearing the A suffix number which it has had for the majority of its life, an operational life which began in Birkenhead, continued in the Cotswolds (son of original owner) and was retired there, moved to Wales, moved to London and ended up with me.  I have documents and letters which provide the details.

During my ownership (28 years and counting), the only people who have photographed it or shown much interest have been ROC members at various gatherings.  Most people do not know what it is and the few that think they do declare it's a Robin Reliant which, if it's said within my earshot get a scowl, as befits the miserable old git owner.

Mr Barrett's spottings are always of interest.  My maths teacher had a Sheerline as his daily in the early 1960s. It was huge, unreliable and very scruffy. Not many people liked them back then.  Even now, they are the acquired taste of a few. 

[skoda_fan]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

its OSL282  (I stuck DSL282 in and got a ford, was quite confused for a moment! LOL)

not quite in this case, vehicles imported/first registered before A prefix plates came about in 1983, where always given a registration plate according to their date of first registration (so if it was imported in 1983 it could well have been given a Y suffix plate! but like A suffix plates you can request and appropriate age related plate these days)

with the introduction of A prefix plates they introduced age related plates for such vehicles (and the Q plate was also introduced)

so the Traction avant having been imported in 1985 has had an age related plate from day 1 although it was somehow robbed of its first age related plate (I guess it did not get marked as non transferable)

Firstly, thanks again to Mr Barrett for some amazing spottage. I'm convinced I must live in the wrong place; I never see that kind of stuff.

Interesting background info there too, Mr LBF. Years ago a friend of mine imported a 64 VW notchback and it was given an L reg which was current at the time. Even back then it looked a bit incongruous. But what I really want to know is what website are you reproducing that info from? That would lead me to hours of wasted but pleasurable time in research, but I always thought DVLA didn't give out that information. Evidently they do, but where do I find it??

[LightBulbFun]

29 minutes ago, skoda_fan said:

Interesting background info there too, Mr LBF. Years ago a friend of mine imported a 64 VW notchback and it was given an L reg which was current at the time. Even back then it looked a bit incongruous. But what I really want to know is what website are you reproducing that info from? That would lead me to hours of wasted but pleasurable time in research, but I always thought DVLA didn't give out that information. Evidently they do, but where do I find it??

sadly I cant tell you what the tool that I use personally, as its a commercial thing I managed to wrangle access to for my invalid vehicle research, that (sadly) also costs money (yesterdays little mondeo excursion cost me £15~ in credit LOL)

however I recently came across this website https://www.carbaba.co.uk/ (stick the reg in, give it a random milage or whatever and hit the "value my car" button)

which seems to use the same back end as my tool and as such provides most of the info my tool does, the only things it does not provide is VIN numbers (and you cant look up a vehicle by its VIN sadly) and if a vehicle has had previous registrations it will tell you so, but not what they are

so I recommend you try that and see if it provides the info your looking for (sadly it does have a 15 a day look up limit)

[keef]

Odd the way it lists, or doesn't, previous keepers. My A40 bought new by my father's cousin, only seems to show my father's date of purchase. Unless the previous keepers count is the one before the one listed?