Peter Turvey's Stanley Steam Car Chassis #7644

Stanley 10hp Model 607 steam car No. 7644

History

1) Letter from the Rev Brown to Mr Peacock 7/11/47, which mentions having the car in the war but being unable to run it because it was not petrol. A copy of this letter was sent to me by Mr Jeremy Bacon of 6 Park Street Romney March Kent TN29 9AY in July 2001.

2) Copy of sale advert in Motor Sport December 1951 annotated note seventh page of classified first column (I have not been able to verify this as the December 1951 copy of Motor Sport in the Science Museum Library does not contain all the adverts!) and correspondence between the Rev. Brown and Harold Smith, lent to me by Harold Smith and copied.

According to steam car enthusiast Rory Woolf of Ballymena, Northern Ireland, racing driver Malcolm Templeton once owned the car - I have not been able to verify this. Malcolm Templeton is still alive buy very ill I understand. I am trying to contact Malcolm Templetons sons to seek conformation.

Connection with the Earl of Antrim - not proven

My friend Derek Mills of Ships View. Osmonds Lane, Teignmouth Devon came across a photograph of a Model 607 Stanley steam car in a collection of material acquired from the late Harold Illingworth, a steam car and boat enthusiast. We believe this photo to be Stanley 7644. The only concrete evidence is perhaps the absence of hood, registration plates and prestolite cylinder, and position of the offside front boiler frame bolt, which looks as through it is below centre as in our car. In the same collection there is a Stanley catalogue, with a photograph of the boiler of the same car (we know this because the lamps match those in the larger photo; the near side lamp has a damaged top and this is clearly seen in the original of the smaller photograph). On the back it is annotated 'Stanley 10 Lord Antrim's 1914 top of boiler' Some of the wire wrapping appears loose, and we know that our car we reboilered by the rev brown with a bolsover type boiler. Perhaps the photos are of our car prior to reboilering. A further letter to Mr Peacock from the Rev Brown dated 3/11/49 mentions that the 1914 Stanley is in excellent order except for the boiler. So perhaps the Rev. Brown reboilered the car for resale.

I have contacted Alexander, Lord Antrim who kindly has a search through surviving family albums. However, this did not turn a photo of this particular Stanley. However, I contacted the Ulster Motor racing Club to see if anyone there could contact the Rev. Brown's descendants, and was also told that that it was thought the car had been acquired by the Rev. Brown from the Earl of Antrim.

Other leads as of 27 August 2001

Car Location

This is the front near side of the Stanley in July 2001.

The chassis offside August 2001.

The engine offside Augsut 2001.

The offside rear spring and brakes August 2001.

In October 2001 Peter wrote to me "...I am still finding out more about the cars history, and we have nearly completed the strip down. There is (not surprisingly) a lot of wear and all main bearings have to be replaced, but all the key components except the boiler and the (wooden) chassis are sound. " which is great news. It appears that another important relic is in good enough condition to preserve for the future.