A few weeks ago we went for a day out to Brooklands Museum where they were holding a Morris Minor day. We were talked into going by some friends who have been going for years. In fact there were a number of people heading across from Chatham so it had the makings of a lovely day out. There was of course the weather and the day before we went it was very cold, so much so that I wondered about the wisdom of spending a day outside.

In the end we did go and the weather was nice enough to sit outside and eat our picnic but the high point of the day was the cars. It hadn’t dawned on me what a trip down memory lane the day would be. You see Morris cars were the first cars I ever knew after my dad passed his driving test in the mid sixties.

I don’t remember the order in which he owned them but if I recall correctly there was a Morris Oxford, Morris Minor and several Morris Travellers. These cars took us everywhere in the late 60’s - all round Scotland, to the Orkneys and the Outer Hebrides. He would later swap to Vauxhalls, probably because they stopped making Morris cars but there has always been a soft spot in my heart for the loveable moggie.

The car would be loaded up with camping equipment and my brother and I would be in the back seats sitting on piles of sleeping bags with pillows stuffed in around us. We’d be given the collection of “summer specials” that my mum had been buying in the weeks running up to the holidays. They were to keep us occupied and probably to stop the constant refrain of “Are we there yet”. It probably took us ages to actually get there because the Morris Traveller had a top speed of about 70mph – hardly surprising as it only had at best a 1000cc engine and fully loaded it wouldn’t have been the fastest thing on the road.

It wasn’t just the engine size and top speed that were from another era, the cars still had starting handles! They did have electronic ignition but had a crank handle just in case. The earliest car we had had a split windscreen and pop out indicators. I also remember that if you opened the boot and unbolted the back seat you could get inside the car that way. The style of course was from a bygone age too especially the Travellers which were probably the last in the line of the traditional Shooting Brake.

It’s not as if they were without trouble, the first car we had leaked! If it rained the passenger side footwell would fill up with water!!. Those stick out indicators would never work – they’d either pop out and not go back or more likely stay resolutely stuck inside the car. On the way to the Orkneys the front wheel fell off the car as we turned into a garage meaning we had to get a taxi back to the campsite and stay put for 2 days while a part was delivered from the south. In those days they used to lift the cars onto the ferry and when they did my dad was horrified when he saw the amount of rust underneath the car. On one famous occasion my mum, brother and I had to get out of the car as it wouldn’t make it back up the hill.

Once in Scotland my dad had parked the car on the side of the road while we went walking to St. Mary’s Loch. When we returned to the car my dad went to drive it onto the road and both front wheels fell into a drainage ditch. In the gathering gloom he tried to get the car out again but it didn’t have the traction to do it. We ended up sitting with a blanket wrapped round us while my dad cursed and swore as he jacked up each wheel in turn and stuffed bricks under them. Eventually it was free but not before he threatened to throw a brick through its windscreen and leave it there!!!

So it was great fun going round looking at the different cars and remembering times gone by. We got to sit in one of the Morris Minors and got a ride in a Morris Minor van after the parade. Even the smell of the car was beautiful – a heady mixture of leather and petrol. Cars might have come a long way since then with all their technological advances but they don't have a soul like a Morris Minor.Oh Happy days!!