An endangered species with an extinct Austin

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Every now and then, we are reminded of something interesting but unrelated to cars, and it came to our attention lately that on the liturgical calendar, today is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis, of course, was known as a great animal lover, and is indeed venerated as a patron saint of animals. Consequently, 4th October is honoured not just by various churches but also by proponents of animal welfare around the world.

We are not qualified to say much about hagiography or zoology, but we were prompted to dig out this excellent photograph we have of some elephants from Bertram Mills Circus, seemingly amused by what they are probably thinking must be a new car for the clowns.

The vehicle does not require expert identification - we can all see it's an Austin Seven - but the body style probably won't look so familiar. It's a roll-top newspaper van, about which not much is known except that they were in use during the 1930s by a number of regional newspapers, including the Leicester Evening Mail, Derby Evening Telegraph and Lincolnshire Echo. Rather than having rear doors, they were fitted with a roller blind which afforded excellent access to their cargo. Sadly, no original examples are known to survive.

Once a common sight

'Titch' Allen of the 750 Motor Club was an employee of the Leicester Evening Mail and wrote fondly of his time with them: 'They were used to rush newspapers to corner-site paper sellers and newsagents and, as in the open position it was like a hatchback without the hatch, it was very easy to load and unload bundles of newspapers. Very often a young assistant would sit in the back with his legs hanging out to facilitate the off-loading.
     'They were built on a 1930 chassis and were painted pillar-box red, our group colour... Though thrashed unmercifully by all and sundry including me, they were dead reliable. I am sure these vans were used throughout the group and I think ours had been used in south Wales before we got them. Our sister paper in the Midlands, the Derby Evening Telegraph, had some for sure. Our rival paper was the Leicester Mercury, and it used Bullnose and Flatnose Morrises which could be seen off by our Sevens in the street races which took place to be the first out with the news. When the Mercury acquired a fleet of 70mph six-cylinder Bedford vans we finally had to admit defeat.’

We have only ever seen one other photograph, showing the fleet of the Leicester Evening Mail and its fleet of Austins of various sizes, which gives us cause to speculate about the origins of the bodies. We noticed they differed in some details from the Echo van, suggesting the bodies may have been constructed to a general specification by various local coachbuilders, but the Evening Mail vans carried south-west London registrations, so they might have shared some sort of common origin after all. Perhaps somebody out there knows more?

Now the days of elephants in circuses are long gone, which may be for the best, but we hope to see Austin Sevens buzzing about until the end of time. If you haven't sampled a Seven yet, the good news is that there are always plenty available to buy on PreWarCar.com, including nothing less than a beautifully constructed replica of a roll-top newspaper van.

Words: Zack Stiling
 

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