a Intresting photo

[DavidMetcalfe]

a very Intresting photo of this Bradford,I've never seen it before!!

[Tony Fearn]

It looks un-naturally long.
Tony.

[Chris Spencer]

I think it is a standard wheelbase however, the long rear window gives the impression that it has a long wheelbase. What is fitted to the body adjacent to the door though ? - it has a hinged drop down door to it and to me it looks like a speaker cabinet of some description - given that there is a lead coming through the open door to the man stood to the left of the van - has he a microphone / headphones in his hand ? - If so is this an early radio van / public announcement vehicle - surely unique if it's still around.

[Jack]

Reg no HBY 557 perhaps? It is definitely some kind of speaker setup, he has a record in his hand and the microphone, but what is in the back window? Some kind of display with a book? Possible preacher?

Certainly an interesting photo. I'll see if Mr B has seen it or knows anything about it.

Jack.

[Forumadmin]

Reading some of the literature in the back of the car I think the large brown book has Jowett on it. Perhaps they were trying to sell Jowetts, although the book in the hand and the demeanour does suggest a Baptist preacher.

[PAUL BEAUMONT]

Certainly a picture that I have never seen before. Keith, you obviously have better photo enhancement software than I do.I cannot make out anything in the back of the van. The board on the building might just say Squadron.....
I am bemused by the gent with the book as he seems also to be holding a record.
Overall the thing looks like a Hearse! maybe they are touting for the co-operative funeral service!!

[Forumadmin]

Just strong imagination...

[Jack]

Inverting the colours, so it looks like a negative, makes out the sign on the shop front to be something like GLASS WO... which I suspect would be Glass Works, the first word isn't clear but has approx 8 letters, I think it ends ***STEAD but very hard to see.

The phone no below it on the sign ends 5013, and now increasingly confident that the reg no is either HBY 557 or HGY 557.

This is a good game.

More searching, check this out. It was BANSTEAD GLASS WORKS. See link here: http://www.bansteadvillage.com/picture/number316.asp and more info here http://www.bansteadvillage.com/picture/number131.asp

"It is thought that this photograph shows Mr Meyrick and Mr Riches, sound engineers, whose firm Raylec Ltd was set up in 1936 at 43 High Street Banstead - the site currently occupied by Collingwood Sound & Vision. They are standing in front of a vehicle that appears to sport a loudspeaker. On the panel in the background above the car can just be detected the words Banstead Glass Works, and it is thought that this was located at the rear of Wingfield House in the High Street."

So they are sound engineers, not preachers as we'd guessed. The internet really is a powerful thing. To go from a ramdom photo with unclear text via Google to a website where the son of one of the people has posted and has an e-mail address they can be contacted on. Within hours. Crikey.

From the comments on the site, it suggests this might have been part of the 1953 Coronation Celebrations.

If we can come up with any more info I'll send it to their site - they seem very active and interested in their local history, and any details on the car I'm sure will add to the info they have worked out already.

Jack.

[robert lintott]

Scaled to the possible height of the men , the length would be 12-13 feet, but it does look long!

HBY was a Croydon mark first issued in 4/49, so it could be ? HGY is from London 12/45 to 7/46, but allocated to the Post Office , in the days when the GPO could easily have had a mobile sound vehicle ?

Amazing how all this info gets around there must be millions of people putting stuff on the internet, Bob

[Jack]

I'd suspect HBY in that case - it looks like they work for a private company and it seems to be a publicity thing for them as sound engineers, and Croydon is only 8 miles from Banstead.

If so, do we have a record of when HBY 557 would have been made and who bought it? It might help the locals to know when the photo was taken in finding more info, it still seems to fit with it being taken in 1953 theory, but it might be interesting to see if there are any factory records that tell us what kind of car it was when shipped.

Jack.

[PAUL BEAUMONT]

Regrettably I don't have any record relating to any vehicle registered _BY. I have a '49 CB registered KGY but that is the best that I can do. Anyone do better?

Paul