Standard, Triumph & related car companies

Don't immediately recognise it as Coventry. Initially thought it might be one of those Georgian houses in Priory Lane, but I don't think so. Why are all the windows open too?? Certainly have vivid childhood memories of the old Vanguard. My uncle had the estate car version which was truly cavernous!

Standard Ensign photo, 1957

At long last, I have completed adding captions to and sorting the photographs I took at the 2008 Standard Motor Club International Rally at Charlecote Rally (these were originally on "fotopic" but that outfit disappeared a couple of years ago so all my photo galleries have had to be rebuilt on "Zenfolio") There are over 100 photos from the rally, featuring Standard and Triumph cars plus some commercial vehicles, in this gallery, which I hope some of you will enjoy looking through (click on the thumbnails to view larger images!)

From the Official Handbook of Coventry c1937 or perhaps a couple of years later.

Another photo in the same set of the same building shows a sign which says 'Offices of the Foundling Hospital', which is in Brunswick Square, London - see Google Street View

Well spotted jvb

The photo in the add brought back memories, I lived in Tile Hill and went past the factory everyday to work. It was a massive place all the way from Tile Hill Lane to the bridge over the railway down the highway, and the depth way back to the edges of Hearsall Common. My story for Standard Triumph is that my grandad (E B Gunn & Son) every year had the job of french polishing the S/T stands for the London Motor show. As he was a one man band, despite the son in the company name, he used to get his son and son-in-law (my dad) to help him. One year, they were throwing out the previous years wooden scaled car models and my dad brought one home for me. I cannot remember what vehicle it was but it was big enough for little lad to ride on and pretend he was driving. Ah memories

This coming Saturday, 18 May, as part of the Standard Motor Club "SMC100@STAR90" celebrations of 110 years of the Standard Motor Company, the bollards at the Museum of Road Transport will be lowered and the pedestrian area in front of the Museum will be opened up so that Standards and Triumphs can park there. Members will be participating in a number of roadruns that day, including a call at the museum between 2 and 4pm

Spotted a TR4a sports car in the car park of B&Q the other day. The exterior was in a poor condition which is a crying shame. If the owner doesn't want to restore it himself I wish he would at least sell the car to someone who does.

Everything changes over time. The old Canley Triumph works has gone, replaced by something useful finally. The roads in it are named after cars made there, but in 30 years, people might wonder where the name Vanguard or Renown Avenue originated and why has one of the roads got a Spanish name (Toledo Close), but they won't wonder for long because nobody will care. I drove past the old works six days a week on my way to work, and never imagined that it would go, but that was my Canley Triumph, a productive Canley Triumph. My father called it the 'Standard'. That was his Canley Triumph. For people today, it is Sainsbury, McDonalds and Carphone Warehouse and odd street names which make no sense. I haven't been back to the UK in over fourteen years, and much will have changed, I don't doubt. I try to find my way around my old stamping grounds (not just Coventry) in Google maps street view, but even nature is working against me, trees and bushes having grown higher and blocked the views and landmarks that I knew so well.

C'mon Mike, the Toledo was built there as well My mate had one as his first car - he left it parked on top of Winsford Avenue and the handbrake cable snapped without it being in gear. Thankfully it tracked straight and missed hitting anyone and the school but put a 90 degree bend in a lampost at the foot of a hill and split the car in two! If anyone offshore wants a better view of anything I'll happily go and take a snap or two and add on here!

LOL. I know that and you know that, but the Toledo was discontinued in '76, and how may do you see around now? NONE and you won't because they are anything but collector items. The Renown, discontinued in 1949. The Vanguard, discontinued in 1963. The Herald, discontinued in 1971. Mention the name Spitfire and people think of elliptical wings and eight Brownings. Unless you are a car buff, you would have to have been born in the 50's to remember most of the above, and at the age some of us have reached, remembering back that far becomes ever more difficult.

Some interesting and what I would call rare shots from within the Canley plant here

It was a sad when they hoisted a Rover logo up onto the front and called it an administrative centre, marking the end of an era for good..

G'day Highfield, Was the Banner Lane works part of that set up, as my father worked there just before and during the war years. He was one of the masses who rode out the gates on his bike. I bet a lot of the workers never saw most of the works only the section where they were.