UPDATE – 29 August 2023
This photograph is now confirmed as Eric Kay (of Cheltenham), with Howard Homer as passenger, on Lyn Hill (near Barbrook, North Devon). The photograph was taken on 16th April 1949 during the MCC’s 29th Land’s End Trial.
I have to thank Roger Wrapson, of the Riley Register, for the information about the owner and confirmation of the event (the Riley Register has a note that Kay had the number 89 for the 1949 Land’s End Trial), and the Facebook community, especially Ashley Clarke, John Knox, and Jo Goodman, for identifying the location. [Note: The very distinctive house, top right, is still there and can be seen clearly on Google Street View if you know where to look.]
Lyn Hill was used by the MCC for the 1949 and 1950 Land’s End Trial when the route was a shortened ‘austerity’ format, due to petrol rationing, and the entire trial took place on and around Exmoor. The MCC dropped Lyn Hill when the trial returned to its more traditional format in 1951. The bridge at the foot of the climb was swept away in the Lynmouth Floods of 1952 and, when subsequently rebuilt, it was too narrow for cars. You can read more about Lyn Hill, including its exact location, on this previous posting.
ORIGINAL POST:
It’s some time since I’ve posted a “Where is it?” photograph, but this one is definitely worth sharing. I am trying to help Brian Homer track-down the location of the attached photo, the event on which it was taken, and the driver. What we know so far …
- The car, Riley Sprite CNF 640, is a known car, still in existence in the Netherlands (I believe).
- We have a photo of it competing in the 1939 MCC Lands End Trial when it was a different (darker) colour and had the original Sprite full swept wings.
- Brian has three other photographs of the car in the same colour/trim as the attached photo, i.e. a light colour and cycle wings. He’s pretty certain that he can date these to sometime between 1947 and 1950.
- The attached photo has Brunell’s stamp, with a Paignton address, on the back, but neither Brian nor I can find any evidence of any other PostWar trials photos by Brunell.
- Brunell normally took multiple photos at one location when photographing trials but I have never seen another with that distinctive house top-right. It has been suggested that it might be somewhere in the Stroud Valleys but I cannot place it (I’m pretty certain that it’s not the Slad Road out of Stroud, as has been suggested) and the distinctive house doesn’t look very Cotswoldy to me.
Brian is trying to find-out who owned the car in the late 1940s with the hope that the name might appear in the magazines of the time and help us to identify the event. If we can identify the event we might have a fighting chance of identifying the location.
Can anyone else help, particularly by confirming whether there are any other PostWar trials photos by Brunell? And, of course, if anyone can positively identify the location, that would be even better. Replies by the Contact Me email address on the right, please.
