Mystery location and unknown car
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This illustration is from a glass plate negative purchased over forty years ago from a London antique shop. The identity the location is unknown although the wagon on the right is covered with a South Eastern & Chatham Railway sheet and both that wagon and the one next to it have chalked upon them ‘GER’ and a date ’25/5/18’.
The car is a Rover 12, a type which was built between 1909 and 1912.
The location has now been identified as north of the Thames and by the Great Ouse. It is parked outside Brown & Goodman's Flour Mill (Corn Mill on old maps) behind Godmanchester Station. The station was on the St Ives to Hutingdon section of the Great Northern & Great Eastern Joint Railway. The line was closed in 1962; the seven storey mill was demolished in 1969.
Huntingdonshire Through Time, by Alan Akeroyd and Caroline Clifford (E-booko r print) has an excellent photo of the entire frontage (?) of the mill including the non-cnformist chapel.
An outstanding question raised since publishing the image initially is that if the photo dates from May 1918, or just after, would the car have been runnng on coal-gas?
Any viewers who can clarify the fuel question, or provide any further information should contact Mike G. Fell, e-mail: mike_fell@hotmail.com or write to Bentinck House, Chantreys Drive, Elloughton, Brough, Hull, HU15 1LH.
Updated to J912 - July/August 2018
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