At the 512th meeting of Henley Probus Club, following a short business update including reports from the Treasurer and Secretary, the Chairman reflected on the success and great feedback received about the recent Summer Lunch and visit to the BMW Mini factory at Oxford.
This month’s guest speakers were Ann and John Ford who gave a fascinating and entertaining talk on their Company, “Morris Minors in the Media”. The talk was very light-hearted and commenced with a short history of the Morris Minor which was first built in 1949 and remained in production (at its Cowley, Oxford site) until1971.
Ann and John started their company in 1990 and it continued until 2015 during which time they bought and sold a large number of Morris Minors and at any one time they would have 35 in stock. These cars were regularly rented out to the film industry and were used in a number of films such as Shadowlands (starring Anthony Hopkins) and The Borrowers.
The cars also featured in TV shows and adverts, and were also very popular for wedding cars. Probably the most famous use was with the Police forces around the UK when they were known as the Panda cars (mainly green and white in colour). John presented some of the film memorability they had collected over the years, including a crew-only bomber-style jacket from the first Harry Potter film.
