These blogs will feature articles that we have received from owners who have kindly sent their stories in to us for publication. They are stories of real people sharing their life experiences and of course the stories of their cars.
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Croft PrtrtWilliam Heaney, Part II.

A Ford 8 is the first car I remember and my sister recently reminded me it was registered JI 8287, a Reg. No. I can now remember my father quoting often, with affection. It was his second car, bought when he was promoted to District Claims Inspector for the ‘Labour Exchange’ (The Bru or Dole if you prefer) and had to drive around West Tyrone chasing ‘boyos doing the double’. Our parents went to the Coronation in 1953 and had driven up to a relative’s house near Nutts Corner Aerodrome (as it was then) and flown over to London – Croydon Aerodrome. On their return they were within three miles of home when the Ford 8 was assaulted by another car and written off and my mother quite badly injured.

Ford8y

The Ford 8 was replaced by Morris 10 – HOM 151. When Fred retired from the Civil Service in October 1954 he didn’t actually stop work – quite the opposite. He’d got a contract to chauffeur his replacement around and ‘show him the ropes’, and that led to the taxi business being started. Memories of this car :– With no garage at our house on 18 Bridge Street, he rented space in a warehouse in the Canal Basin and cycled back & forth to the car. I often was allowed to sit on his lap and steer the car down the alley in to the warehouse, before returning home on a little saddle on the bar of the bicycle. Then there were the numerous trips to Rossnowlagh to the caravan for weekends and holidays AND I managed to fall out of it on one occasion as we slowly rounded a sharp RH Bend. Scraped and bruised, nothing broken but I think the smack for playing with the ‘suicide’ front door was more sore!!

Morris 10

Austin Somerset – ZU 5063 (The earliest Car Reg. I remember on my own) joined the Morris 10 and was Fred’s first registered taxi. It’s also the first car I clearly remember my mother driving, although she obviously would have driven the others I have no recollection of her doing it. I would experience my first accident in this car, when an intoxicated driver ran wide on to our side of the road on a corner on the Urney Road between Strabane and Clady. I think we were almost stopped when he hit us head-on, because I don’t recall there being any injuries.

Somerset

A former close neighbour recently posted this photo on a facebook page, from her late father’s collection, of ZU 5063 outside our house No.45 Bowling Green, Strabane where we’d moved to in early 1954. My Mum’s bicycle, on which I learned to ride, can be seen in the garden beside the bench that was a communal meeting place for all n sundry on warm summer evenings. The little Austin A30 outside No.41 belonged to local garage owner Jack Sweeney, whose boys always had the fastest ‘guider carts’ because they had access to cast-off roller-bearings and workshop facilities!!

Cartref

A Humber Hawk was the first ‘Wedding Car’ and arrived late ’56 or early ’57, replacing the Morris 10. Aside from the mammoth effort it took to polish it and then putting the ribbons on it for weddings, I’ve only one real memory of this car and it is a big one. In summer ’57 we had a touring holiday with the newly acquired Eccles caravan in tow. Down through Connemara and the Burren to the lakes of Killarney and across to Blarney Castle before returning north. Six of us in a four-berth caravan because my friend Desmond came along. We little-uns slept on the floor at night.
The car and Fred recently appeared, briefly in the background, in a wedding home-movie shown on “Gloria Hunniford’s Moving Picture Show” on BBCNI, when the programme visited the Glenelly Valley above Plumbridge.

Humber Hawk MkIV

Look out for part III same time, same place next week…