I quite like those little snippets in the bottom corner of the local paper advertising a random exhibition thats coming up. My Dad handed me one the other day for the Maidenhead Heritage Centre and its celebration of 100 years since car production began in the town. The towns Cordwallis Estate was home to three little known makes and a very famous race team. Vanwall was the team that Stirling Moss raced for in the late 1950s when he won the British Grand Prix. The exhibition is running for three months through the summer and each month a different vehicle will be the centre piece. With nothing planned for Saturday morning and with Kim away for the day, Lily and I set off up the A4 on an adventure, parked up outside it was clear the place wasn't that big ( I think our back garden is larger!) Wandering in we had the place to ourselves, lined with display cabinets of local history and the motoring past of the town, the middle of the room was taken over by the basic, but stylish 1921 GWK (Grice, Wood & Keiller)
The car is a sturdy two seater with a twist. Power is from a two cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine, drive is via the GWK friction drive system. A disc driven by the engine rested against a wheel on the back axle, by moving the wheel across the disc the "gearing" was altered speeding up or slowing down the car. Move across the centre line and you got the same in reverse.
This was the perfect place to take Lily on my own, it wasn't very big so she could wander around on her own and there was a massive dressing up box in the corner, she was in her element swapping floaty scarves for flying cap and goggles as I studied the display cases.
After almost an hour of looking around we decided to head off, a date with the planes at White Waltham and a spot of lunch was calling.
So many people never realise the engineering past of the town they live in (or nearby) We will be back a couple more times to see the remaining two cars they are displaying
Steve.
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