Charlie Dodds

[David Morris]

Hi All,

Just wondering if any of you ( especially in the Southern Section ) remember Charlie Dodds? I am going back in my memory to the mid 1960's and my memory ( as some of you will know! ) is not very good. But what I saw during a visit to Charlie's made a big impression in my mind that has remained clear. He had a large plot of land near Dartford in Kent. I cannot remember exactly where, but it consisted of a valley and must have been about 10 acres. At the entrance to his plot there was a car repair business, which may not have been associated with Charlie, but I watched in amazement as a Mini was assembled from bits of broken Mini's in a rather frantic 'cut and shut' operation. A lane then descended into Charlie's valley. On the sides of the lane were bits of Jowett's including a complete Jupiter chassis, which looked unused. It prepared me for what was to come further down the lane!

At the foot of the lane were two long war-time Nissan huts, housing Charlie's operation. Inside, it was jaw-dropping! Every corner was packed to the roof with what looked like 'New-old-stock' wooden boxes and carton upon carton of Jowett spares. To give you a clue, one of the Nissan huts had a sagging roof, and Charlie had improvised a roof support pillar inside the shed from boxes of new Jowett pistons, from floor to roof! You know the kind of box, marked Hepolite and holding four pistons in a strong cardboard yellow box. The place was packed! Nowadays JCS would be gasping at the range and diversity of what was there. Goodness knows from where Charlie had assembled this goldmine, but it must have been from somewhere associated with the factory?

I was there to collect a stationary engine to power a project of mine then, with an ex-RAF DC generator to make a mobile welding set. Charlie took me outside and pointed to the gap between the two Nissan huts, as they were end-to-end. There was a pile of Jowett ex-wartime 2 cylinder stationary engines that had been cut out of their frames. here must have been 20 there at least, all jumbled up in a big heap between the two sheds. I chose one that looked ok, and still have it. Needless to say, my project got overtaken by having children and that engine now sits in the Severnside spares shed!

I struggled up the lane with my prize, which had cost me £10. Unfortunately, I never returned to Charlie's but several of us where I worked were running Javelin's and my colleagues were often running up to Charlie's for parts. Javelin's were then classed as 'Bangers' and could be bought for around £60 or so. Indeed, as the factory spares operation had just closed, there were stories of Javelins being stacked up by scrapyards, set on fire, and the aluminium being collected in lumps from the ashes!

What happened to Charlie and his hoard is a mystery to me! Perhaps someone else can continue the story, or perhaps that valley is still there, with a locked door to the Nissan huts just waiting to be opened!!

Take car and enjoy life!

David

[Keith Clements]

I think some of the stock ended up with JOAC via Lincolnshire, but that is only my faint recollection. Possibly Steve Keil can remember. I have also talked about Charlie with Wes Meneeley so if anyone has contact with him it would be good to ask.
It is a shame the JCC was so poorly run at the time concentrating more on the social side of motoring, unlike in NZ where they acquired a similar stack of spares that they still have. It took George Mitchell to persuade the UK club into managing spares and Wes and his committee to see it through.