picture puzzle

[richard]

where have i passed today ? 2 locations and is there a micro connection ?

[Chris Thomas]

Dear Richard

Is that Leicester Forest East and Hilton Park services

Chris Thomas

[richard]

no but they are both motorway service stations and they are consecutive , on the same stretch as each other - and the microcar connection ? if dave pops in i think he will get it immediately 

[DaveMiller]

Charnock Richard (the bridge) and Lancaster (the tower)!

Er ... because they were the last ON-motorway services* you met as you travelled from North (Lancaster) and South (Charnock Richard) on your way to Ribbleton Lane in Preston, where they were busy making Bonds?

(*There's nowadays the Tickled Trout services in between the two - but it's actually off the motorway itself.)

I'll just mention that - contrary to the opinion of many southerners and those who don't understand what the "one" in M1 means! - this late '50s, early '60s architecture gives a clue that it was the M6 (in the bypass around Preston) which was Britain's first motorway.

Look at that - history before breakfast!

[DaveMiller]

Or was it because Bonders met up there on their way to Morecambe Rallies?

[Big Al]

So Stingray was really based under a motorway services. Cunning. The microcar connection is that little buggy Commander Shore used. Might be a lightweight Brutsch Mopetta. Explains the curry too. 'Anything might happen in the next half hour!'

Preston bypass being the first motorway is so upsetting for Londoners. Still they made up for it building the M25. Pity they forgot the barbed wire and trenches either side.

I like the 'fact' that the Bonders nipped onto the unused M6 and were the first to drive upon it. Please tell me its true.

[richard]

Well I am mobile again so no "facts" handy but .... M6 Preston by-pass was Britains first motorway and the first services was the top pic Charnock Richard near Leyland/Chorley . The second pic is Forton Services ( now renamed Lancaster) this the second u.k. Services . In the day they were iconic buildings with a restaurant in the tower that non- motorway used just to dine at and look at the traffic ! Apparently the restaurant was later closed to the public as the only fire escape was the one octagonal lift ! The opening of the M6 was also a major event in the country and Bonds managed to arrange a group of Bonds , 5 I think , to be the first public cars to use it . They arrived at the pre-arranged photo shoot to early and some missed it but there are pics of the other 3 taken for posterity

[DaveMiller]

I never visited the "tower" restaurant at Forton, but do remember the family having a ride out from Southport specially to go on the motorway and visit Charnock Richard.  My uncle was paying (!), so we went into the restaurant, which sat in the bridge over the traffic lanes.  I recall only two things:  that I had a fresh-cream meringue ... and that it was waitress service!!

[Big Al]

Lancaster seems a long way north to take the motorway in the first stages. You would expect going south towards Manchester/Liverpool to have been the priority. Must have been reasons. A more innocent world where a day trip to look at a new bit of infrastructure and some frippery of service were enough to make a moment. Now such a thing would probably be laughed at. But the cars reflect that too. A working man was proud to have his Bond and the freedom it offered. Living in the passed is cheap and rewarding.

[richard]

is this as you remember dave

[richard]

just reading the Bond website and it mentions that any publicity for Bond was negated by the death of Winston Churchill the very next day , inevitably the M6 opening was lost in the newspaper coverage

[DaveMiller]

I remember us sitting at small tables along the other wall, Richard - each table at right angles to the window.  (Could be wrong - I was only about 9!)

As to the "opening" of the M6, some confusion has crept in, because of two openings and two attempts to feature Bonds.  Doug Ferreira did indeed arrange for Bonds - Minicars Mk E at that time - to be the first public cars on the motorway, when the Preston By-pass opened in 1958.  I can't find them right now, but I have seen pictures of two of them, and the Wikipedia entry on Bond Minicar tells the story:

In a publicity stunt for Sharp's, three Bond Minicar Mark E's, two Saloons and a Tourer were the first cars to drive along Britain's first Motorway, the Preston By-pass when it opened in December 1958. The plan was for the second and third cars (driven by Alan Pounder and Doug Ferriera) to 'deliberately' slow down the traffic whilst the lead car, driven by John Woods the Production Manager and fitted with one of the new Villiers 247 cc engines, would shoot off into the lead and be photographed by the BBC. Unfortunately, the plan back-fired because the Bond beat the camera crew to the bridge where the shot was to take place! Consequently, the evening news only showed the second and third Bonds amongst the traffic on the opening day. Now part of the M6, this event was recreated for the motorways 50th anniversary by the BBC's Inside Out programme in 2008

Churchill died on 24 January 1965, so the use of Equipes was perhaps for the opening of a later section of Motorway - perhaps Preston to Stafford, in 1965?

[richard]

Publicity for the GT4S never again reached the heights of entries in international rallying, though an attempted media coup by offering Bond vehicles as Press cars for the opening of the new M6 Motorway - illustrated right - came to naught when Winston Churchill died the next day! Production continued steadily with the next major change being the introduction of the GT4S 1300 in February 1967, powered by the new 1296 cc Spitfire Mk III engine from Triumph. Apart from this the new vehicle was