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AUSTIN SEVEN ARCHIVE
Open day at Lubenham, Leicestershire
A sunny Saturday and the
opportunity to see the latest venture by The Austin
Seven Clubs Association.
Phil Baildon, Archivist of
the A7CA has kept the Association archive in bedrooms
and garages for many years but has recently grabbed the
opportunity to give the collection a more permanent
home. The Triumph Sports Six Club has premises in
Lubenham that are an object lesson in turning Club funds
into a real asset rather than numbers on a bank balance.
The experiences of the last 18 months demonstrate that
they probably had the right idea.
Artefacts on display
The large
sums held in Club accounts are now
earning little or no interest but
the TSSC has premises to be proud of
that include a museum, shop,
workshops, cafe and meeting rooms
all in a pleasant village setting
and all owned, not rented, by the
Club.
One of the Museum displays
The
Austin Seven Clubs in Australia and
South Africa have acquired similar
facilities but the Austin Seven
Clubs in the UK can only dream of
such things.
The Club Shop
Recognizing that a more stable and
accessible home for the Club Archive
is a must Phil Baildon has rented
one room from the TSSC with the
potential to extend into two others
as the facility grows. Saturday gave
the opportunity to visit and see
what could be achieved.
Well equipped TSSC Workshops
Rolling
up at 10:30 we were greeted by the
manager of the centre who had
assumed car park and crowd control
duties for the day. Entering the
courtyard we saw the workshops of
the TSSC with cars undergoing
maintenance and a Club liveried van
used to transport display materials
to Events.
Part of the TSSC Archive
Entering reception we were
directed through a Museum area with many fascinating
items on display either bought by the Club or donated by
enthusiasts including original design drawings.
An original Michelotti design
drawings
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After drinking a
complimentary coffee we passed through the Shop and
upstairs into the area occupied by the Archive.
Part of the A7CA Archive
The body of the collection is
housed in a small room equipped with shelving and desk
and including a number of items of historic value in
'Stanley Edge Corner' including the drawing board and T
square used to produce the original Austin Seven working
drawings and many of the drawings themselves.
Stanley Edge's Drawing Board and
T Square
Phil Baildon was able to show
us a suitcase holding Stanley Edge's original
paperwork covering the years during which the Seven was
designed and his manuscript for an unpublished
autobiography.
Stanley Edge's paperwork
The sole Austin Seven to appear.
The room available for expansion
has the potential to be used by visiting Clubs and as a
display area for Club Artefacts and memorabilia.
Wayne Rushin's remarkable
machine.
A few adventurous souls arrived
in a diverse selection of cars. Amongst these was Wayne
Rushin's recently acquired Austin 20 Shooting Brake.
From the front this vehicle
looked uncannily like a Chummy on steroids but the rear took
a very distinctive form.
Turn to start
Among the more unusual features
were a 'wing-nut' starter switch and a filler cap located
beneath the drivers seat that needed it's own spanner to
open it - an early anti theft device maybe?
The filler cap
Wayne
is currently debating how much
restoration he should carry out.
Inside the shooting brake
The
Association has been contacted
by a volunteer archivist who
will hopefully be able to
catalogue the collection. Once
this has happened it is hoped
that the collection will be made
more easily available to Austin
seven Club members. Watch this
space.
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