Report from the chair (June 2024)

Ford Motor Company ashtrays

One of our kind donations

Dear all, and welcome to our June newsletter.

During the month we had our second run out in the Ruby, this time on a run from Poynton to the Little Mill Inn at Rowarth. Part of the reason for doing this was to test the car on steep hills and this was an ideal trip as it involved a several-mile uphill drag from Marple Bridge to the Inn. The car behaved very well on the journey and Craig and I had a very enjoyable meal along with about twenty other members of the Manchester Historic Vehicle Club.

We noticed on the way home to the archive however a change in engine noise. We changed the plugs and checked various settings but the noise did not go away so we called in a local Austin Seven expert, David Mann, who analysed the problem as most likely being a worn engine bearing. OK, so that meant getting the engine out and stripping it down to examine the crankshaft bearings. Thanks must go to Pat Jeater, Paul Niblett, Craig Horner, David Mann, Max Smeed and John French for the loan/donation of the necessary tools and manpower to achieve this.

Having got to the offending part we discovered that the diagnosis was indeed correct and the centre main bearings had worn. This potentially means a major piece of work to have the crankshaft tested and sorted and the sourcing of new parts, all of which could mean the car being off the road for quite a while. John French, however, came to the rescue as he discovered an engine for sale which (if all goes well) could mean we can get the car back on the road more quickly and fix our engine at leisure. A phone call later and the engine was ours – all I have to do now is get to Birmingham to collect it. Watch this space for an update next month.

Meanwhile, we have been going through the donation that came from Yvonne in Scotland and found some very interesting items. I particularly like the collection of Ford Motor Company ashtrays and a large collection of Ford “house” magazines (these are magazines produced by a company for employees, their families and friends). These are great to have as they do not come into the public domain very often.

Dickie, our Scottish volunteer, has been down on holiday this week and brought along 11 poison bottles to add to our collection. These bottles are very often blue to indicate the contents are poisonous but these are clear or green glass. They do however have “POISON” on the bottle and the ridged lines to help people with poor eyesight identify the dangerous contents. As well as the bottles, Dickie also added another dozen beer glasses to the collection.

Yet another donation from Pete Boswell in Stratford Upon Avon has been picked up and is now waiting to be added into the product files. This time it was the remaining copies of Horse and Hound magazines plus a number of TV magazines. A further lot is being collected this week.

The excellent work that Katie and the marketing team are doing on promoting the archive through the website and social media is paying off, as I have fielded several enquiries from researchers, together with a couple of offers of donations. One of the donations is being collected from the Wirral in a week’s time while the other was generously brought to the archive by the donor. This collection consisted of about 300 Burnley Football Club programmes (always sought after as the advertising is usually by local businesses). These will join the many other programmes we have in the collection.

Our June open evening saw six of us enjoying pleasant conversation and a healthy dash of lemon drizzle cake and rum babas. The latter went down particularly well and Max even turned up the following morning to cadge another piece.

Until our next open evening and newsletter, have a great time and enjoy life to the full.

Take care and all the best.

 Richard Roberts and the team at the Richard Roberts Archive

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Collection Statistics

The Richard Roberts Archive collection statistics
Tuesday 20th May 2024

Collection database                          

Total items                                           159,397
- of which Magazines                        135,372

Product folders

Total folders                                          163
- circa number of adverts                 20,276                            
                             
Breweriana  
Total folders                        404     
Beermats                                                 24,242

Transport photograph database

Total items                                                   883   

Volunteer hours

Total                                           71,842
- of which this month                         440