Bexhill 100 Motoring Club

Bexhill on Sea - The Birthplace of British Motor Racing (1902)

By Bob Wilkinson

Here is a story that captured the imagination of car lovers. From a few emails about a Morris Ten in a garden in Kent through to displaying 6 Moris Barn Finds at The 2011 Classic car show held in Birmingham's N.E.C. in November, followed by stories many of the main classic car magazines.

In the spring of 2011 i started to get emails via my Morris Ten website.
The emails asked if I was interested in a Morris Ten that had been in a garden for around 20 years. I had vision of a rusty wreck suitable only for spare parts.
Eventually I spoke to the person.
He then told me it was not just a Morris Ten, but also 5 other Morris Cars. All the cars were under some sort of cover.
At a club garage night I mentioned to a few members that I was going to veiw the cars and would anyone like to come along.

Several months had now passed since the emails and here we were outside a typical semi detatched suburban semi detached house near Gillingham, Kent. On entering the garden we found 2 garages facing us. On opening the first we found a Morris Oxford from 1958, dusty and with ivy growing down the front, but looking in remarakble condition. The tax dic showed it had been off the road for almost 20 years. Roger Gillett had been looking for a car like this for a while. His eyes lit up and he soon asked if he could have first grabs at this car. On closer inspection we found the car supported on bottle jacks before we opened the bonnet. Looking under the bonnet, everything seemed in good order. What looked like new spark plugs were fitted, the fan belt still had it's stick label attached and on checking the oil level it revealed clean new oil on the dipstick. It appears that the car was fully serviced before being locked away all those years ago. Roger then spotted it was fitted with a towbar. This is something he would have fitted as he wants to use the car as an everyday runnabout, and he often tows a small trailer,