A new car has joined the working collection at Beamish, having been purchased from an accomplished car restorer in Staffordshire. The aim is to provide something usable around the Museum site on a regular basis, but of perhaps more comfortable standard than the Morris Commercial or Model Ts!  This is very much a no-overalls vehicle!

It is an Austin 10 Cambridge, dating from 1937 and registered as 659 UXW.  It is a very nicely restored (but not overly, so we aren’t afraid to use it!) car and will be designated ‘green’ for regular use.  Items such as the SOS are ‘amber’ and the SHEW car ‘red’ – a system I will be further developing and rolling out now that Matt is taking over the operations side and freeing me up a bit!  This system has been on the cards for several years, just never defined or populated with our vehicle collections.

Below: The vendor kindly provided numerous photographs showing the restoration of 659 UXW, a selection here showing the saloon being completed and the car being masked and sprayed.

Below: The finished result, as delivered to Beamish this morning.  It will compliment the Austin 20 hearse and I am sure we will one day acquire an Austin 7 (maybe a commercial/van example).  The 10 will fit the collection nicely, as an older vehicle in the 1950s area in particular.

A new car