Alan Barnes spends a day with Sean Wiles, Industrial History Conservator for Hampshire County Council Museum Services, to look at their latest Thornycroft restoration, a vehicle that posed something of a conservator’s dilemma.

A recent addition to the vehicles on display at the Milestones Museum in Basingstoke is a splendid 1937-built Thornycroft Sturdy ZE/TC4 and I was pleased to be able to be with the lorry out on the road, retracing part of the old Thornycroft test route. Chatting to Sean was a little difficult above the engine noise but the story of the restoration revealed some of the dilemmas faced by conservators at the museum.

Sean gave an example: “Consider two possible situations. Firstly, a rare Thornycroft car, in near perfect condition, is found in a garage where it’s been for 80 years since its owner died and his family had no further use for it. “Secondly a rare Thornycroft is found that has had many owners through its life. One of the most recent owners has modified the car totally in order to use it in hill climbing competitions.

At Chilcomb in August 1996, before restoration started. HCCMS COLLECTION

This process has resulted in a vehicle severely damaged and changed from its original construction. “The question is, which should be carefully conserved and not used again but displayed in a museum and which should be restored to its original condition and may be demonstrated to visitors performing its original function. “In this case it’s clear that the car which is nearly original should be kept that way with the minimum of intervention while the other may be totally rebuilt to the correct specification.

However in the latter case the changes made by previous owners are still part of that particular vehicle’s history and when the incorrect parts and fittings are removed they too should be kept and documented as part of the permanent record of the car.” Well, to me that seems fairly straightforward but complications arise where the choices are not so clear-cut.

What if the changes are minor and hidden within the fabric of the vehicle? Should they be corrected? How much work should be done on a particular vehicle? For example the amount and type of work required before putting a Spitfire on static display would be significantly different to that needed to return it to flying condition. On a smaller scale, perhaps that rusty old oil can should be cleaned and displayed as a shining example. However, if this is the only can of that particular design made by that particular company to survive, should it not be preserved in its original state?

Home again: Aveling & Porter traction engine No 4255 of 1899
Queen Victoria rests outside the home of the Mounce family in Lifton on 15 July 2005.
ALL: JOHN HOBBS, UNLESS STATED

Sean adds: “When inspecting this Thornycroft these factors were considered. The lorry had been totally dismantled and rebuilt by a previous owner, he had repainted it and had made up many parts to his own design rather than that of the makers. The body had been taken from another lorry and fitted incorrectly to the chassis. There was almost nothing, in fact, which had the original finish or appearance of the vehicle in 1937 when it was made. It was easy to see that this was an object requiring restoration in the true sense of the word. However it is important to stress that every part of it was carefully examined with conservation in mind before work was carried out and wherever possible the parts identified as being original were re-used.”

The first ‘Sturdy’ was produced in 1931 when the KD model with an MB4 engine appeared, although this vehicle was designed in 1923 and named the ‘Strenuous’ but its name was changed to Sturdy when commercial production began. Over the next few years various models were developed with forward control, normal cabs and diesel and petrol-engined versions all appeared.
On 27 September 1935, work began on the first ZE Type and in November it appeared on the Thornycroft stand at Olympia. It was fitted with the new TC4 engine, a 3865cc four-cylinder side valve petrol engine which developed 62hp. The lorry proved to be so popular that by the 1937 show, there were six variants displayed on the company’s stand. Contemporary advertisements heralded the arrival of “A first class five-tonner for £144 cash” and “Why operate 20mph vehicles when for such a modest outlay a modern 30mph five-tonner can be so easily acquired?”

The Sturdy was an undoubted success for Thornycroft and production continued until March 1958 when chassis number 58876 was delivered, completing a production run of 11,860 vehicles. BWD 461 was built in 1937, chassis number 27448 and engine number TC4 462 and was delivered new to Rugby Co-operative Society on 11 November 1937. It is believed to have remained in service with them until 1952, when it was sold to a private collector in Broughton Astley, Leicestershire. It remained in his yard for some 30 years until it was bought by Mr FG Langley in 1982 who carried out a great deal of restoration. The chassis, running gear, brakes and clutch all received attention but no work was done on the seized engine.

End of the On-line article.
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