1959 Ashley 1172
Registration No. OJR 444
This Ashley 1172 was originally built by Thomas Mertens, of Central Garage, Ellington in Northumberland, for his daughter and news of it's existence first came to light in 1992 when Adam Pringle contacted the FSCC.
Adam's Mother (the car builders daughter) had used the car until 1967 when it was stored away, unfortunately the last 5 years were out in the weather.
Adam had inherited the car and was looking for information regards restoring or selling the car.
There are no DVLA records for the car as the registration details would not had been entered into the electronic database due to
the Ashley not being used in the late 1970's
However Adam did have some details that had been past on by his mother.
Donor car: 1938 Ford Popular
Orig.Engine: 933cc SideValve 8HP # RY - 1142557 PG
Gearbox: 3 Speed
Chassis: # Y - 215484 + 11411
Orig.Engine: 933cc SideValve 8HP # RY - 1142557 PG
Gearbox: 3 Speed
Chassis: # Y - 215484 + 11411
Adam also supplied additional photo's from when his mother used the car in the 1960's.
Adam eventually decided not to restore and sold the car on in
1993 and it has had the following history:
Thomas Mertens 1.7.1959 - 1992
Adam Pringle 23.7.1992 - 1993
Adrian Wilan 1993 - 1996
Craig Buckley 13.10.1996
Peter Buller 10.4.1997
The last owner had the car parts for sale in April 1997 and I can only assume that it's existence came to an end at that stage.
From the FSCC correspondence it appears that cars original engine was not in the car that Adam had and a replacement was never fitted,
also the car spent all it's existence in Northumberland.
1993 and it has had the following history:
Thomas Mertens 1.7.1959 - 1992
Adam Pringle 23.7.1992 - 1993
Adrian Wilan 1993 - 1996
Craig Buckley 13.10.1996
Peter Buller 10.4.1997
The last owner had the car parts for sale in April 1997 and I can only assume that it's existence came to an end at that stage.
From the FSCC correspondence it appears that cars original engine was not in the car that Adam had and a replacement was never fitted,
also the car spent all it's existence in Northumberland.
August 2019
In March and then again in August 2019 Adam Pringle
contacted me via this webpage
(for some unknown reason the March message never got to me !!!), However the August message did and I have since made some corrections to the original text as my ex-FSCC supplied
information appears to have been incorrect,
(modified text shown underlined above)
contacted me via this webpage
(for some unknown reason the March message never got to me !!!), However the August message did and I have since made some corrections to the original text as my ex-FSCC supplied
information appears to have been incorrect,
(modified text shown underlined above)
Adam's message to me included the following details:
The original kit was actually purchased by my grandfather Thomas Mertens and he and his daughter Yvonne (my mum) proceeded with the conversion in time for my mum's 17th birthday. My mum was studying mechanical engineering at the time which was a very rare thing for a girl to do in those days!
My mum confirms that the body was bought directly from the Ashley factory.
The donor vehicle was purchased from a local family in the village of Ellington in Northumberland – my grandfather owned the two garage businesses in the same village, hence the attraction of a kit project and my mum’s training as a mechanic!
Mum doesn’t think that the donor was purchased from the Story family, but confirms that there was a David Story in the village at the time, but he was younger than my mum.
We don’t know the registration of the donor vehicle as OJR 444 was allocated on completion of the project,
Mum said, "I drove it around the track in the field next to the Central Garage learning to drive long before my 17th birthday, the Storey boys looked upon it as a Sunday afternoon treat to accompany me, in the photograph it is Peter Storey in the front and David Storey in the rear".
Mum also said that the bonnet of the car was very low and required a crossflow radiator which was not really compatible to the Ford Popular engine, it always had cooling problems, hence the need to carry a can of water for when it overheated, which was often.
(The original information that I had said her father had been
David Storey, hence the correction, Sorry about the mistake).
If you have any other information about this
Ashley 1172 car
Registration No.
OJR 444
(originally registered by Northumberland C.C in March/April 1959)
please email me on
[email protected]
or
use the contact page on this site to contact me.