A piece of automobile history will be on view this weekend in the Lancaster factory where it was produced 70 years ago.
Earlier this year the remains of a very special car were uncovered in a corner of a Cumbrian scrap yard. What unfolded then was a story that might have put Lancaster on the map as a car manufacturing town in the years after the second world war.
The story starts with the attempt by British MP and entrepreneur Denis Kendall to develop a post war ‘People’s Car’ that would be a small family car, affordable for everyone. After an initial plan to set up a car factory in Grantham Lincolnshire failed, Kendall sold the idea and all the plans to the Hartnett Motor Company in Australia.
It was at this point that Luneside Engineering Company in Halton near Lancaster were contracted by the Australian firm to assemble the car in Britain. For reasons that still remain something of a mystery, the Luneside contract fell through.
While Hartnett went ahead and produced versions of the car themselves in Australia all trace of the car that was to have been produced in Lancaster seemed to have disappeared and faded from memory.
That was until earlier this year when Chris Coates, site manager at Halton Mill which has developed the old Luneside Engineering factory into a work and event space, received a surprise phone call.
“Out of the blue a worker at the Wicks recycling yard in Kendal rang,’’ said Chris.
‘’(He) said they had found a rather strange car chassis in the corner of the scrapyard they had just taken over, which they thought had been made in Halton.
‘’It seems that at least one car was assembled by Luneside Engineering and was removed to the scrapyard once the factory closed down.”
The discovery of what turned out to be possibly the last remaining parts of a model Kendall ‘People’s Car’ has sparked something of a flurry of excitement among motoring history enthusiasts in both the UK and Australia.
“We felt we had to bring this unique find back to Halton, and Heritage Open Day seemed the perfect opportunity.”
The aluminium chassis of the Kendall/Hartnett car will be on display at Halton Mill on Saturday 17th September, between 10am to 4pm, as part of Heritage Open Day.
There will also be the premiere of a film about Luneside Engineering at 2pm, plus an exhibition of the Luneside workers at play.
All are welcome, and entry free. See https://haltonmill.org.uk/ for details.
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