My parents, Harold and Rose Burgess, posing on/in a motorbike and sidecar, which probably belonged to my uncle, Harry Loveday. The headlamp and windscreen are particularly impressive.

Harold's brother, Albert, made a habit of appearing in interesting vehicles.

My cousin Pete Loveday has identified this as an AC. The design appears to date from some time between 1913 and 1930, probably around 1920.

Albert lost an eye during the First World War and did not like driving afterwards. When he married Ethel in 1922 he hired a limousine with chauffeur to travel in style.

A sightseeing charabanc trip with Ethel and Bert in the second row, far side.

A similar vehicle parked outside a police station with no known connection to the family apart from the fact that the photograph was amongst all the others that had been preserved.

Slightly more modern is this car, NJ 7641, being driven through a flooded Elm Road, New Malden by my father, Harold. It was a two-tone Wolseley with a very box-like design and it stood out in a crowded carpark. The age and model are at present unknown but I think the date of the photograph is May 1952. I remember it had a blind that could be pulled down across the back window by a cord that stretched from beside the driver's seat if headlights behind were too bright. My Primary School, on the right behind the fence, has now been demolished and rebuilt.

Slightly more curvy but also more battered and certainly less plush is ELW 735 - an Austin 12. I can just see the AA badge mounted on the front grill. Note the sagging running board and the two door handles close together. I remember once, when the rear door hadn't been closed properly, the wind caught it as we drove along and it crashed back against the wheel arch, leaving the rear passengers hanging on as the road rushed by.

A rather more recent family car, which had a decidedly more steamlined look to it. It is still long enough ago for Highclere Road to be otherwise deserted of vehicles; very different from nowadays. The huge boot could hold a useful quantity of luggage or samples of furniture that Dad sometimes had to carry for work.

	Ford Consul 694 UME

Albert Edward Hely, who was a cousin of Harold and Albert, bought this Bentley in December 1950. It has a Mark VI chassis with an aluminium body coachbuilt by H.J. Mulliner. The total cost was more than £5500.

The original registration was LXB 295 but this was transferred to a Rolls-Royce by the next owner and the Bentley then received its present registration.

My thanks to Martin Webster for the photographs and all the information.

Unsurprisingly, this very original motor car is a multiple Bentley Drivers Club Concours winner.

If anyone should know anything further about the Bentley or perhaps even have a photograph of it in earlier years, please get in touch and I will pass the information on to the current owner.

Many thanks to Neil Collins for responding to my request for further news of the Bentley and providing much more than I could ever have hoped for. Here is a taster: the Bentley with its original registration engaged in a hill climb event at Firle Hill, near Lewes, East Sussex. What a way to treat a Bentley.

For more about Albert Edward Hely's family and their vehicles follow this link to a page about his son

Dudley Hely and sports car racing.

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