East Anglian Practical Classics are helping Woodbridge Methodist Church celebrate its 150th anniversary. This is particularly apt as, in the same year that the was founded, Dr John Wesley Carhart, an American Methodist Minister, began constructing a steam-powered cart that laid the foundations of early mechanised personal transport. His machine, named ‘The Spark’, was so successful it earned its inventor the title ‘Father of the Automobile’.
In recognition of this ‘double event’, East Anglian Practical Classics will be displaying a selection of heritage vehicles that would have common in 1971 at the Church, marking 100 years since the beginnings of both the Woodbridge Methodist Church in 1871 and the car as we know it today.
This unique display will take place on Bank Holiday Monday, 30th August, on the forecourt of the church in St John’s Street, Woodbridge.
On display, we hope to include two extremely rare cars, a 1966 Gordon Keeble (no. 94 of the 99 made) and a 1950’s Paramount, one of only 72 examples originally made, of which less that half a dozen still exist.
There will also be a Toyota Carin, which was a brand new in 1971, a 1950’s Vauxhall Cresta, to show off the time periods fashion for fins, and, from the 1930’s, there is a venerable Austin Seven Ruby, which were still being used daily in 1971.