One of the most important functions of the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust is to provide assistance — financial and/or advisory — in publishing automotive books that might otherwise never see light of day. Three such books have been published in the first half of 2024.

Moke: The Early Years by The Mini Moke Club contains contributions from various authors covering the genesis and development of the Moke through prototypes in the 1957–63 period, up to the point of production. Readers see how the many prototypes kept changing in design: Buckboards, Short Wheel Base, Twin Engine, True 4x4 and Pre-production Mokes.

The influences and challenges that led the mercurial Alec Issigonis to devise the Moke, one of the most surprising variants of his front-wheel-drive, transverse-engine design concept, are explored in full, complete with many previously unpublished photographs and documents. Published on the Moke’s 60th anniversary, this 200-page softback book costs £20 from The Mini Moke Club at Moke The Early Years (mokeclub.org).

De Dion Bouton: The Veteran Years 1899–1904 by Michael Edwards is a handsome three-volume set that follows on from the author’s previous work on the marque.

Part One (304 pages) covers company history, including details of the individuals who provided the impetus for its early development and subsequent success, and coverage of competition activity.

Part Two (264 pages) is devoted mainly to identification of the various front-engined single-cylinder models together with technical specifications.

Part Three (244 pages) moves on to comprehensive coverage of the twin-cylinder engine and transmission, and all subsequent aspects of the company through the Great War years to the eventual cessation of production in the early 1930s. Priced at £175, De Dion Bouton: The Veteran Years 1899–1904 is available to order from Surrenden Press at De Dion Bouton – The Veteran Years, 1899-1904 – Surrenden Press.

From Ballybannon Hill to Magilligan Strand by Paul Robinson is published by the author and is available from his website (www.robinsonbooks.co.uk) priced at £30.

Northern Ireland enjoyed unique status from the 1920s onwards as the only part of the UK where public roads could be closed for motor racing. Eventually that would lead to the TT races of the 1930s and 1950s that cemented the names Ards and Dundrod into motor racing annals. This book chronicles the earlier efforts of Belfast motor dealers and other enthusiasts to organise hill climbs at Ballybannon, Craigantlet and Red Brae, sand races on Magilligan Strand and the aborted Ulster Grand Prix at Clady, cancelled after a fatal crash.

PUNK AND NEW ROMANTICS INVITED TO JOIN ELGAR AND TRAD JAZZ

Giles Chapman explains the Trust’s wish to nurture publishing about newer classics

Perception, as they say, is everything. And here at the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust we suspect many potential authors think we’re interested only in, well, the ‘very old stuff’…

In fact, that’s not the case at all. Our support for the recording of motoring history really does mean ALL motoring history, and that very much includes the 1970s, 1980s and even 1990s. We encourage anyone with a car-related book project founded in eras as ‘recent’ as 30, 40 or 50 years ago to consider how we might help turn it from an idea into a printed masterpiece!

And we are completely serious about this because, in many cases, the people involved are very much still around to record their memories, and the research material that’s available — including photos, artefacts and documents — is as valuable and relevant as anything from veteran or Edwardian times. Cassette players, matt-black bonnets and pop-up headlights are already things of the past; being asked to play our part in recording their importance will be music to the Trustees’ ears.

Of course, we will never entirely discard our deerstalkers and flat caps in favour of peroxide spikes. But bear in mind that the Trust’s ‘playlist’ might be a lot more up-to-date than you realise.

NICK BALDWIN, 1945–2024
An appreciation by Michael Ware, former Trustee and National Motor Museum curator

Nick Baldwin was a motoring writer of many talents. Besides having prodigious knowledge of cars, especially early and oddball varieties, he was an expert on commercial vehicles and tractors.

He started work in 1962 with Land Rover, but soon transferred to magazines, working for Commercial Motor, Motor Transport and Truck. Later he became editor of Prince Marshall’s Old Motor, went on to establish the ‘Discovered’ column in Thoroughbred and Classic Cars (during Tony Dron’s editorship), and wrote for the short-lived Supercar Classics.

Besides hundreds of magazine articles, Nick had 42 books to his name. I would like to mention just three very special ones. In a 1985 collaboration with artist David Weston, Nick provided the commentary for the limited-edition Rolls-Royce Fantasia, featuring a superb set of paintings commissioned by Patrick Merriman. In 1998 he co-wrote with Julie Ann Lambert Motoring in Britain 1895–1940, a massive volume produced in collaboration with the Bodleian Library and Toyota City, and produced in a very limited edition. In 2000 he supplied many of the photographs for Nick Georgano’s Beaulieu Encyclopaedia of the Automobile.

Besides his writing, Nick had a spell as Chairman of the National Motor Museum Advisory Council and was closely involved with the Stratford-upon-Avon Transport Museum. He was a great friend of Michael Sedgwick, my predecessor as curator of the National Motor Museum, and in 1984 helped found the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust.

For many years Nick and his wife Julie lived in France, rebuilding two farmhouses in the process. He had a collection of varied vehicles both at his British property and in France. More recently he and Julie came back to live in Devon. There was no thought of retiring, he just kept on writing, and was working on a new steam-vehicle publication up to the day before he passed away. He was a keen member of the Sherlock Holmes Society and in recent years the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. He was also a great autojumbler, having had a stand or shared a stand for many years at the Beaulieu September event.

The last time I saw Nick was at the 2023 Beaulieu Autojumble. I miss his knowledge, genuine friendship and very laid-back approach to life.

A PRIME DESTINATION FOR RESEARCHERS
A brief look at the research resources available at the British Motor Museum

Following Michael Ware’s tribute to Nick Baldwin, it’s timely to provide an overview of the research facilities available to automotive authors at the British Motor Museum, where the holdings include the Nick Baldwin Collection.

The origins of the collections at the British Motor Museum go back to the creation of British Leyland in 1968, a merger that brought together most of the surviving British motor manufacturers that were themselves agglomerations of earlier mergers and therefore encompass a large variety of firms — 97 in all. By 1983 the collections had grown to the point where it was decided to establish the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust (BMIHT) to safeguard them, and ten years later, in 1993, the splendid new Heritage Motor Centre — now the British Motor Museum — opened to the public at Gaydon, Warwickshire.

Around 70% of the archive collection is catalogued digitally. As databases have grown, it has been possible to open up more of the collections to the public, the latest initiative having been a programme to digitise the photographic collections. Over the years, British Leyland records have been joined by Lucas Industries and Aston Martin to widen the scope of the archive to encompass the British motor industry in its widest sense.

The reading room contains an extensive reference library and also offers researchers the opportunity to access original material held in the BMIHT’s archive store, from build records for single vehicles to the entire history of the British motor industry. Use of the archive store is by appointment only (giving at least seven working days’ notice), and before making arrangements researchers are advised to establish what material is available and what they would like to see, so that it can be made ready prior to a visit.

An essential source for this purpose is the Discovery website, which is part of the National Archives network. Here you can find BMIHT catalogues for the Business Records Collection, the Miles Thomas Papers, the Austin Papers and the Nuffield Papers. This website will also guide you to other archives containing documentation about your chosen subject.

The Nick Baldwin Collection catalogue is also online at a separate website under the British Motor Museum’s umbrella. True to Nick’s wide-ranging interests, it is full of all sorts of curiosities.

Finally, the museum also has a spectacular photo archive, a tiny proportion of which can be seen at its online photo gallery. The good news for automotive authors is that very favourable rates are offered for specialist books with short print runs.
Find out more at https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/archive.

MY FAVOURITE BOOKS
Trustee Giles Chapman explains his choices

I have tons of books but my library has a patchy quality. It’s big and messy and, of course, a working resource for writing about cars and car culture. Many of the reference sources I go to repeatedly are hardly entertaining and are getting tatty from overuse. Freed from deadlines, I could happily ditch most of them.

The one book I’ve returned to time and again, though, is Roads to Oblivion: Triumphs & Tragedies of British Car Makers 1945–56 by Christopher Balfour (Bay View Books, 1996). I’ve found it one of the most insightful studies of the post-war British car industry and how much of its potential and energy were quickly squandered. Christopher’s thoughtful work reconciling the contemporary written word with his personal experience and hard economic facts makes it riveting stuff, and the style is surprisingly cheery given the title. He picks apart the muddle of Daimler, the promise of Jowett, and the importance of, for example, Fiat’s advanced and responsive engines at a time when British manufacturers kicked and screamed if people suggested their offerings were wanting. It’s super reading.

Other favourites? Jaguar: The History of a Great British Car by Andrew Whyte (Patrick Stephens, 1980) is one. Whyte had worked at Jaguar, firstly as an apprentice in 1958 and lastly as a PR man in 1973. He knew a lot about the company from the inside and was astute enough to realise in 1980 that many of the loyal band William Lyons took on his incredible journey were still around to share their memories. Not just the star engineers and designers but the diligent, lesser-known organisers and characters who were the backbone of his marque. I love the way he bottled this precious concentrate of the early years before it evaporated. It’s a modest book, slightly uncomfortably formatted, but for me it wonderfully captures what made Jaguar and not just what Jaguar made.

And then there’s A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design by Michael Lamm and Dave Holls (Lamm-Morada, 1997). With sections bearing titles like ‘George W. Walker: The Cellini of Chrome’, ‘Engines to the rear, please’ and ‘Ford goes from Boxy to Aero’, you can immediately tell this dense softback is going to explain and explore the whys and wherefores of American cars. It’s jam-packed with all the archive images you could wish for, yet the book itself isn’t stylised in that coffee-table way that can sometimes hobble a great reference source.

WHAT IS THE MICHAEL SEDGWICK MEMORIAL TRUST?

The Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust is a charity, not a membership organisation, run by volunteer Trustees who between them have huge experience of writing and publishing books. The Trust exists to encourage new and original research into any aspect of motoring history and to offer financial and other assistance to authors and publishers.

The Trust wishes to see research into motoring history reach the public domain, through publication as books, other printed media or on the internet. The Trust gives advice to would-be authors and tries to ‘connect’ authors and publishers. The Trust believes that even books with very limited sales potential should be published if the subject matter is worthy and the research is new and comprehensive.

In cases where a publisher or author believes that a subject merits publication but is unlikely to be a viable commercial proposition, the Trust can often offer some financial help to bridge the gap or enable an author to self-publish.
Where research is of a very specialist nature and not commercially viable, the Trust may offer funding to assist with research provided that copies of resulting texts are lodged in selected specialist libraries, County Record Offices and possibly published on the internet.

michaelsedgwicktrust.co.uk