Shite in your town, in ye olden times.

[rusty998]

This we believe is a picture of my Sister's Mk3 Ford Escort,  EGK 50X outside E R Rowlands in Ashford in Middlesex now Surrey, on the A308 by Ashford Common,  probably around the mid 80's 

E R Rowlands was a real old school iron mongers, key cutters, household goods you name it they had it, shop assistants in brown coats, wooden draws with all sorts in and service that you would only get now in a posh restaurant,  God I feel old .

[skoda_fan]

4 hours ago, Austat said:

Mk4 Escort on a W plate? What an oddity!

Private plate (from the days before DVLA started selling them).

[sheffcortinacentre]

Probably a female driving school/instructor.

[Amishtat]

It is/was, I grew up in Colchester and used to see that around quite a lot. 

[Dick Longbridge]

On 3/14/2020 at 4:35 AM, skoda_fan said:

Private plate (from the days before DVLA started selling them).

Definitely. The Escort looks to be around 1985/6 spec and the W plate mk3s would have been 81s. 

I remember borrowing a canary yellow early mk3 on a W plate from the garage where I helped out in the early 90s. I can clearly remember it was a 1.6GL and I felt like the bees knees rolling up with it to pick up a lass who I fancied!

[Spottedlaurel]

On 2/9/2020 at 10:26 PM, trigger said:

Some from a Colchester Facebook group.

My photo surfaces again! Looks like it's been brightened a bit. I really should have watermarked it.....

Technically not Colchester, but that was our postal town for some years.

One from somewhere more local to me nowadays:

Mere Street, Diss old postcard 1960s by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

[Eyersey1234]

Is that old Austin/BL garage still there? Obviously not selling new Austin just wondered what is on the site now

[Dick Longbridge]

4 minutes ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Is that old Austin/BL garage still there? Obviously not selling new Austin just wondered what is on the site now

Howard Watts now, it appears.

 

[Eyersey1234]

Thanks @Dick Longbridge

[Cavcraft]

Riddlesdell's reminds me of East Coast Motor Co in Cromer

 

[Amishtat]

1 hour ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Howard Watts now, it appears.

 

Which neatly explains why as a Colchester boy I couldn't for the life of me remember Riddlesdell Bros or figure out where the fuck that picture was taken! 

[martc]

On 2/17/2020 at 9:04 PM, dc2100k said:

 

 

Young lad leaving Woolworths on his new Tomos. The number looks surprisingly like F597NOB but unfortunately for us amateur comedians it is in fact NDB. It popped it's last pop in October 1991 - at about 3 years old ?

 

On 3/14/2020 at 12:03 AM, Austat said:

Mk4 Escort on a W plate? What an oddity!

 

On 3/14/2020 at 4:35 AM, skoda_fan said:

Private plate (from the days before DVLA started selling them).

Still is a private plate currently on a silver (what else?) Honda.

[Richard_FM]

It’s quite a drive for that Mitsubishi from Tenerife even if some of the journey was made by ferry.

[Cavcraft]

Must have been taken from the walls by the Eastgate clock. Would hazard a guess this is about 1976, as the bus is 1974 and the Princess didn't come out until late 1975, iirc.

 

 

Woolies had two entrances, one behind the bus (same side of street) and one a little further in front of it. A picture from that spot now wouldn't look massively different, except it's one way (facing the camera) but somewhere round by the single decker is a one way system going the opposite direction, sort of half pedestrianised. In the good old days it was a boy racers paradise at night,  anyone who had the latest fashion car of the moment would drive round and round on a Saturday night with their arm out of the window playing some banging tunes. I had a Mk1 Cortina in 1983 and got a Ford racing jacket for Chrimbo. used to drive round there playing 'White Wedding' thinking I was Jack the Biscuit but looking like a proper twat, no doubt. 

 

 

 

 

[chaseracer]

4 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

I had a Mk1 Cortina in 1983 and got a Ford racing jacket for Chrimbo. used to drive round there playing 'White Wedding' thinking I was Jack the Biscuit but looking like a proper twat, no doubt.

No doubt, but it was THE LAW.

The following summer, I could be observed ridiculed cruising* Worcester in a Dyane the colour of tomato soup, blasting Mozart through the open roof.  What a bellend.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Well, good job that I at least, was cool.

Mk2 Cortina, 1600 deluxe , ( GT badges) Rover 2000 seats, 1600E inspired Fablon wood grain doortops, Karobes centre console with Binatone Cassette player ,playing Dire Straits Making Movies  ( cassettes from the library).

Mostly on Sunday’s around New Quay’s one way circuit, starting at the amusement arcade and pausing at the chip shop at the top of the quay. I think the only reason I ever got lucky was that I also had bikes so the bad girls ( let’s face it ,they’re the ones 17year old boys want) went out with me just too piss their Father’s off.  It was quite useful that we got a new influx of tourists every Saturday in the summer.

[Asimo]

"lappers & slappers"

[dozeydustman]

Moar gratuitous stealz from the faceache group for my home town of Gravesend, this time featuring black & whites.

Local shite peddlers, in The Grove. Started as a BL dealer in the 70s, if not from the earlier BMH & Leyland motors days. 1985 for 86 model year, selling you the improved metro (slightly warmed over) and a rehash of last year's old bollocks.

Auto Reps taxi and coach, 1977-8, was taken over by the mid 1990s by Reliance coaches I think. If my memory is correct the orange one was still going in the late 80s at we went on a school trip in it a few times.

Stonebridge Road, late 50s/early 60s

Local independent bakers Smiths, plenty of 80's tat in this one including what appears to be an early Yoghurt 45/55

King Street in the 1960s, Anglebox, BMC J and a Guy utility GS class bus. The pre-Mellor era traffic lights were still in use until pedestrianisation of the town centre in the early 1990s.

Custom car club meet 1977 at Gravesend & Northfleet FC (Now Ebbsfleet Utd) car park.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, dozeydustman said:

....

King Street in the 1960s, Anglebox, BMC J and a Guy utility GS class bus. The pre-Mellor era traffic lights were still in use until pedestrianisation of the town centre in the early 1990s...

The traffic signals are colloquially known as "tin lanterns". Also very long-lived. The last sets were in service in Liverpool (Menlove Avenue, I think) up to 1999.

They also saw service in Ireland, Australia, Malaysia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, to name but a few.

[dozeydustman]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

The traffic signals are colloquially known as "tin lanterns". Also very long-lived. The last sets were in service in Liverpool (Menlove Avenue, I think) up to 1999.

They also saw service in Ireland, Australia, Malaysia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, to name but a few.

There were some in Oxford well into the late 2000s IIRC

[Tadhg Tiogar]

14 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

There were some in Oxford well into the late 2000s IIRC

I think you might be confusing those with the cast-iron SGE signals that were on Rewley Road junction until the road was remodelled around the construction of the Said Business School.

 

 

 

 

[AndyW201]

Sadly, in our town, there wasn't really anyway for a callow youth to boy race/impress 'the birds' in Middlesbrough, most of the main roads were too long or blocked off in sections, turned into one-ways or pedestrianised. However only a few miles up the road, we had Stockton-on-Tees High Street.

It was effing brilliant. Basically an oval with two lanes either side. At night - a custom made race track, with parking in the middle! When I passed my test in 1991, it was chock full of the boy racers' favourites. XR2s & 3s, Capris, Astra GTEs, Golf GTis, Mk1 & 2 Escorts, the lot. But at 17, I was pounding Stockton High Street in this,

Lousy photo I know, but even a decent photo wouldn't make it any better. TRM 894X was my steed when I passed my test. A tired, shagged out MiniMetro 1.0 superbase, lifted slightly by MG seats and red carpet with incorrectly fitted MG stripes. I later fitted a set of TD wheels and tyres which improved the handling a bit, had a drivers sill welded on which led to a full drivers floorpan when the shit welding done by the PO was discovered.

With the 'SHAN' branded radio cassette (mounted in one of those under dash radio consoles found in Halfords, the base MiniMetro had no provision for ICE) blasting out early '90s European Techno through the home hi-fi speaker components sunk into the rear shelf, I thought I was the dog's very bollocks. This opinion was not universally recognised...

The High Street was sadly missed when it was pedestrianised sometime in the mid/late '90s.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Pretty sure the Mustang & Camaro (money hungry?) n the custom gathering pic are still around.

The escort pickup (ex van) looks very similar to Andy Saunders first creation (was pale blue).

[Cavcraft]

Probably late 1970's, and the Lombard RAC Rally, which used to start under the Eastgate clock, which is to the right of the picture and not in view.  In fact, in this first picture the cars must be the same as the ones in the picture below, just moved up a bit as they waited for the off

 

 

..probably from the same time, a bit further back down Foregate Street. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rab]

Photographs I took in Edinburgh 1985-6ish aged 18-19.Flatbed scans so a bit quap.

[Rab]

[Rab]

[Rab]

[Rab]

[Rab]