Earliest memories

As a small boy in 1954 there was great excitement when my father John Baldwin turned up at home in rural Sussex with a brand new Land Rover. Before that he had been a Jowett man, working for the factory in Yorkshire but mostly based in their London office. He usually had a Javelin or a Jupiter sports car in the drive and when the plucky little firm packed up in 1953 he was given a farewell Bradford twin cylinder utility. He used this to go job hunting and ended up with a shortlist of Perkins or Rover. Happily he chose the latter and soon became the publicity manager for Rover and Land Rover.

Although I remember the Land Rovers from this period quite clearly the only one I can prove to have spent much time in is the 107” Safari shown alongside. This took my father and our Fairey Marine moulded plywood folding boat from Solihull to Angle in Pembrokeshire, whilst my mother and I did the epic journey from Sussex in the lethargic Bradford. We had two weeks to recover from the experience and I recall being deeply impressed by a Safari tour of the cliff tops. Another excitement was making some new-found friends who had converted a late 1920s Dennis bus to a mobile home, which they parked in the sand dunes and which father and the 107” helped to extract when their holiday ended.

Anyway, before this turns into my life story we’ll fast-forward to today and my Landy credentials. I’m on my eighth since buying the Solihull works fire appliance Series II in about 1970. I’ve kept each one for several years and have found them invaluable for life in the country – whether rescuing stranded cars from floods, tow-starting tractors, or bringing in the hay and firewood.

The latest to earn its keep with me on my extremely rustic Somerset farm is a Tickford estate found in Cornwall several years ago and swapped for a 1963 Lancia Flavia Vignale cabriolet – I’m not sure who got the best deal financially, but the Tickford has been fifty times more useful ever since.

In the coming months I’ll be telling you more about the good old days based on an amazing diary my father kept until he retired from Rover in 1966. I’ll also look back on my own days working at the factory (nepotism!) and show some of the things my Landies have got up to ever since.

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