Winterbourne's rare Austin Sixteen Six

Rev Leslie Stevenson was Rector of Winterbourne 1954 to 1970. His son Hilary owned a very rare Austin Sixteen Six between April 1963 and September 1965.

The photograph shows the car, and owner Hilary Stevenson (while a student), on top of Pyrenees en route to Spain. The only trouble he had was a water leak from the packing gland on the waterpump on the way back. A common, minor problem.
We don't know what happened after 1965 but Mr Gareth Jones of Bridgend purchased the vehicle in 1979 in a dismantled condition and discovered our Winterbourne connection during his researches.

The car left the Austin factory as a "bare chassis" 16hp 6 cylinder - generally known as Sixteen Six or written 16/6, presumably not to confuse it with the Seven, which was 7hp. The body number 5TS showed it was destined for a specialist coachbuilder (C T Weymann) for commissioned bodywork. It was first registered in Derbyshire in 1930 with the registration RB 2297.

It took Mr Jones a year and a half to establish who the coachbuilders were. Help was sought from The Motor Museum at Beaulieu, and a trawl was made of their library of photographs to identify the coachbuilder. Contact was made with F T "Freddie" Henry of Devizes (a lifelong associate of Arthur Waite - P A to Herbert Austin) and Freddie actually remembered seeing two, possibly three, of these "Magnet" coupes in the Pass and Joyce showrooms (London's West End Austin distributor) during his frequent visits to Austin's Oxford Street Headquarters. Freddie was, amongst many other things, Principal of the old Austin Apprentices. Sadly he died in 1997. The chassis was bodied by the French pioneer aviator C T Weymann at the old Bleriot Factory at Addlestone. One of these "Magnet" coupes is believed to have been scrapped in the 1960s. No others are known to specialist Austin clubs.

During the rebuild every piece of timber had to be replaced (with ash) - mainly at woodwork evening classes! All mechanicals were overhauled as time allowed. The only job not tackled by Mr Jones during the rebuild was the aluminium cladding.

Strangely, a photograph emerged in 1998, from a source in Hanham, taken sometime in the late 60s for the then owner (someone subsequent to Hilary Stevenson).

The location was the Blue Bowl pub in 1998. This photo was sent to an Austin club on the off-chance that the vehicle might have survived. At the time of this enquiry the car was in fact not far away, in Yate having the aluminium cladding renewed! This photograph was the first time Mr Jones had seen the car in complete condition.

The rebuild was completed in mid-2003, and previous owners are still being sought. The very first owner (1930 until 1962) who probably commissioned the bodywork, is thought to be a Miss Hetty South Holloway. From the "continuation log book" issued in 1949 she was living at Beckenham. A trawl of Holloways in that area has failed to establish any links. Since the car was originally registered in Derbyshire it is assumed Miss Holloway had connections with this area in the 1930s, but this is proving difficult to research. Any help from Web visitors would be appreciated!

2003 after rebuild.

and here's the most recent picture, taken at Atlantic College, Vale of Glamorgan, during one of its road trips in 2004.

The car now has a new owner after the 27 year restoration. Mr Jones reluctantly passed the car on to Mr John Blackton and in the summer of 2007 it was transported back to its home county of Derbyshire.

If you have any information on this vehicle, we'd would love to hear from you!
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