Shropshire classic car collection sells for nearly £12k

Looking like the scene from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang where Caractacus Potts buys a scrap racing car from merchant Mr Coggins, hundreds of people turned out for an auction of vintage cars in Nesscliffe, near Shrewsbury.

Despite having fallen into a state of disrepair, the collection of classic cars which had been stored in an old ammunition storage unit for 40 years brought in nearly £12,000 in an auction run by HJ Pugh & Co.

Collectors and those interested in restoration gathered at a field near the Felton Butler roundabout just off the A5 for the auction.

The biggest sellers of the nearly 40 classic cars on offer were a 1951 Austin A90 Classic which sold for £2,000 and a 1949 Triumph 2000 Roadster which sold for £1,400.

All the other lots were sold somewhere in the region of £100 to £500.

The man selling the collection was 67-year-old Andrew Newport who owns a haulage company in Penzance, Cornwall.

Mr Newport had been a long distance driver and had worked in Shropshire in the 1960s when he started collecting the vehicles.

"I have been collecting these for over 40 years," he said.

"They have been stored here in Nesscliffe but the building they were in has leaked and over the last few years they have deteriorated a hell of a lot.

"I love these cars and have enjoyed collecting them, but I am 67 now and looking at it realistically I'm not going to be around long enough to restore them all now.

"It's just too many and I have had to be sensible about it.

"I have sold them with regret and it is hard to see them go after all these years, but it is time."

Over the years Mr Newport has driven the cars around the roads of Shropshire, before having to put them into storage.

"The one I will miss most of all is the Morris 1000 which I have owned for 48 years," he said.

"I have had it since I was a teen and it is a old friend of mine."

The car was sold as remains and brought in a maximum bid of £100.

"But these aren't piles of junk by any means. In their day these were top of the range cars.

"I would like to see someone buy one and restore it, of course I would, but some of them are beyond that.

"But, they have plenty of value in spare parts and some of the spares on these cars will be hard to get hold of these days.

"I can't keep them anymore so I just hope that someone else can get some use and pleasure out of them."

Robert Thomas, who travelled from Pontywaen, made an unusual find when he came across a 1938 Wolseley 12.

He said: "I just came here to see what was about and I also own a Wolseley 12, the exact same one - well in fact it was the next one to be sold after mine and was likely bought from the same place.

"The registration on this one is VAW445 and the one on mine is VAW444, so it was the next one sold.

"I was quite surprised to find it to be honest."

Mr Roberts put a number of bids on the car but was outbid on £360.

He said: "It's a bit of a shame, it would have been nice to have them together again restored, but there was too much work to do in my eyes for the money."

Marie Jones, from Copthorne in Shrewsbury, travelled to the auction so that she could rekindle the memory of an old car they used to own.

She said: "We used to own a Austin A90 Atlantic, just like the one here, except ours was red and had a soft top and this one is black with a hardtop.

"I remember we took that car on honeymoon back in the 1950s and it sat in the garage getting fixed for a whole week.

"It was always breaking down but we did love it."

Mr Newport said that all the money he had raised form the auction would be put into a further collection of classic and vintage cars he has in Cornwall.