Here are some of mine.
What was the very first car you owned ?
Mine was a Triumph Herald registration LSS482D. I paid £125 cash for from a seller in Hunter Drive, Bletchley from an advert I saw in the Bletchley Gazette. To call it a rust bucket would be to insult the bucket !
What was your first car ?
I learned to drive in 1977. In my younger days I did not particularly want to drive, I knew someone whose father was killed in a car accident and I did not want to be involved in a crash which hurt or even killed someone. But living in Milton Keynes a ser of wheels really was increasing in importance. I wasn’t a drinker as such but did enjoy the odd pint in the pub with my mates, signing up for driving lessons I made a conscious decision to stop drinking and I have not driven since.
Who taught you to drive ? I was taught by a gentleman teaching under the name of Drivewell based on Shenley Road in Bletchley. Much of my driving tuition took place on Water Eaton’s Trees Estate and the roads behind Queensway. Unlike driving students today I was not taught in a supermarket car park ! Well, we didn’t have supermarkets in Milton Keynes back then !
Can you remember the roads you learned to drive on ? Where was the test centre you went to ? For me it was based in a wartime hut attached to Bletchley Park on Wilton Avenue. Make sure the doorway is wide enough for me to get my head through, I passed first time !
How old were you when you passed your test ? I was twenty-six and when my license was issued I looed with amazement at its expiry date, 3rd November 2020. As a young guy it was incomprehensible to consider myself as an old man in 2020. 2020, that’s history now !
While I am being a bit autobiographical here I am touching a few legends from our New City’s youth. As I invite you to answer a few questions along the turn of our kaleidoscope ponder your own legends. Time for another question.
When you passed your driving test and had your first car, where in Milton Keynes did you but its petrol ? For me it was on Whaddon Way in West Bletchley.
Can you still buy petrol on Whaddon Way today ? In those far gone days there were three petrol stations, one near the junction with Buckingham Road which is now a block of flats, opposite the Catholic Church with the junction at Shenley Road. That location is still operating. At the other end of Whaddon Way juctioning with Melrose Avenue was petrol station number three. No longer selling petrol it is today a repair and MOT centre where today’s Kia is maintained with first rate service.
Now this next question will tell your age if you are able to answer it. When you took your car to be filled with petrol was that before self-service ? Was there an attendant on duty at the pumps waiting to fill your car.
What is the worst car you have ever owned ?
Mine was a Russian (Soviet Union) Lada. There was a super car dealer in Wolverton which imported these vehicles from behind the Iron Curtain. Great car dealer, rubbish cars. In the short time I owned that cream coloured Lada it cost me more in repairs once the warranty expired than did its purchase price.
Let’s have a few legendary names from Milton Keynes the city built for cars.
Hertz Langhire in Bletchley’s Duncombe Street.
Also in Bletchley Cowley and Wilson Ltd
Bletchley Motors and Bletchley Motor Rentals
Across in Woburn Sands, Pikesley’s
Wolverton Motors
The wheels on the ‘bus go round and round:
Armstrong Coaches
Bletchley Coaches
Tri-Central Coaches, a bit down the A5 but still serving Milton Keynes.
As did Robinson Coaches
Milton Keynes City Bus
And we must not forget Milton Keynes Dial-a-Bus. As the Development Corporation was trying to work out where the ‘bus routes needed to be timetabled about its new estates Dial-a-Bus was short-term project seeking out where people wanted to go to and at what times of the day.
The Bletchley terminus for Dial-a-Bus is still there today. Stand on Sherwood Drive and face Bletchley Railway station. Look to your left and see the incongruous slip road joining the main driveway. It is full of commuter parked cars. That was the Milton Keynes Dial-a-Bus southern terminus.
I don’t recall how I got involved but Milton Keynes Development Corporation paid a number of people, myself being one of them, to keep a transport diary for a week. This was also ton help plan future public transport needs.
Going out on our infant New City’s road any day of the week it was hard not to spot a London Brick lorry going about its business. Long gone ? So have Sibley Haulage and Bletchley Coaches little brother Brian Baldry Haulage.
Riding along in my
automobile
My baby beside me
at the wheel
I stole a kiss at
the turn of a mile
My curiosity
running wild
Crusin' and playin'
the radio
With no particular place to go
Thank you Chuck Berry. Or should we invite Paul Evans to sign off this chapter with Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat ?Seven little girls
sittin' in the backseat
Huggin' and a kissin' with Fred
I said, Why don't one of you come up and sit beside me ?
And this is what the seven girls said
All together now,
one, two, three
Keep your mind on your driving
Keep your hands on the wheel
Keep your snoopy eyes on the road ahead
We're having fun, sittin' in the backseat
Kissin' and a huggin' with Fred
Drove through the
town
Drove through the country
Showed 'em how a motor could go
I said, "How do you like my triple carburettor ?
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