First World War Maudslay Lorry restoration project - February 2014 update

One of the major projects currently being undertaken by the Friends of Coventry Transport Museum alongside Museum staff, is the restoration of a 1916 Maudslay Subsidy Chassis.

The Friends of the Museum are recording their work on this project on a separate Maudslay Project Blog, but we asked Curator of Vehicles Christiaan van Schaardenburgh and volunteer Sara Johnstone to give an update of the project's progress during the past few weeks, for readers of this main Museum blog.  You can also read an introduction to the project here. 

In the past three weeks the Maudslay WWI lorry has undergone more work to restore it to its former glory. The cab floor is nearly finished; constructing the floor from timber with a removable middle section replicates the original structure seen in the photographs the restoration team is working from. 

The bent sub-chassis, now straightened using a hydraulic straightening kit, has now been fitted with the engine mount. The chassis has also had the body mounting brackets fitted. Before they went on, they were fabricated, altered and textured to look like castings. This important detail, for those with a discerning eye, makes for a beautiful touch as it mirrors the original Maudslay.

The four steel wings to fit over the wheels have arrived from Manchester. ‘Vintage Wings and Radiators’ made the wings specifically for this Maudslay. Various photographs show that Maudslay lorries may have had steel wings or ply-wood wings, there was not a standard but this Maudslay has been fitted with steel as per the photographs that the restoration team is working from.

And finally, the backboard is in the process of being cut to length, when it is finished it will be sent off to be fitted with canvas.

Article by Sara Johnstone.

UPDATE: We were also very pleased to see the Maudslay lorry project featured in the Coventry Telegraph this week!

Sweet Seventeen - A Poem by W.H. Maudslay

The Museum archive contains a number of documents relating to the Maudslay Company, which built cars at Parkside from 1902 until about 1926.  Amongst the records is the personal scrapbook of W.H. Maudslay, the founder of the company.

Archive Volunteer Dave Butler has spent many hours examining this scrapbook in detail, and is picking out a variety of items of interest for the Coventry Transport Museum blog.   The poem below appears to have been written by Maudslay himself:

SWEET SEVENTEEN

Have you heard of the beauty that’s just come to town
A Warwickshire lass of undoubted renown
She comes of a stock far famed and well born
The same lovely features being found in her form
They may sing of Godiva, old Coventry’s queen
But you can’t match this beauty of Sweet Seventeen

Her radiant face in a bonnet so round
Rivets your glance as she skims o’er the ground
While her body is moulded with exquisite grace
She can move like a racehorse or go your own pace
And yet she’s so quiet, of such charms you may dream
She’s a regular darling, our Sweet Seventeen

She’s as sound as a bell is our Coventry charmer
So strong, yet so light, no rough roads can harm her
And just through the city she moves with such grace
The whole of the town wants to see her sweet face
But hurry, oh hurry, if business you mean
Or you won’t stand a chance with your Sweet Seventeen

If you find yourself walking down Piccadilly
This lovely creation you may chance to see
Number 60, the house where she pleases to dwell
See her once, and you’re sure to fall under her spell
You simply can’t help it, she is such a queen
Amongst cars, and her power is a Sweet Seventeen.

The Maudslay Seventeen was introduced in 1910 and a technical description of it in the 9th October 1909 issue of The Autocar refers to it as the Maudslay “Sweet Seventeen”.
Number 60 Piccadilly was the address of the company’s London showrooms.  

Preliminary work gets underway on the Old Grammar School

From March 2014 until Spring 2015, Coventry Transport Museum is undergoing a major £8.5m redevelopment project, which will transform and re-energise the museum, enabling us to tell the story of our City's proud motoring heritage in a world-class, innovative new way.  As part of this project, which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and European Regional Development Fund, we will be redeveloping our neighbouring Grade I listed, 12th-century Hospital of St John, which became a Grammar School in the 16th century, and is known now as ‘The Old Grammar School’.  This will be brought back into public use as an exhibition, education and events space.

Whilst the work is not due to begin in earnest until the end of March 2014, preliminary work has already begun on the Old Grammar School, particularly with regards to the vital matters around conservation, which must be undertaken when dealing with such an old building.

We thought that visitors to our blog would be particularly interested to read about the archaeological excavation which took place at the end of January 2014.  Following an initial exploratory dig in June 2013, the archaeology service of Warwickshire County Council (Archaeology Warwickshire) established that enough items of interest existed within the building to warrant this full dig in January.  This meant excavating the high floor level in the former chapel down to a similar level as elsewhere on the ground floor

The dig took place in the chapel room, where the concrete floor was removed, revealing evidence that a wooden floor had once existed within this room, and some rotten joist remains were found. This meant that as soon as the concrete floor was removed, the archaeologists immediately began to find items of interest, almost on the surface.  This included old slate pencils and marbles, probably lost through the boards of the floor by schoolboys of centuries ago!



Many of the items found were pieces of clay smoking pipes, some of which even had the maker’s names or initials stamped onto them.  The archaeologists explained to us that they can date such pipes with a good degree of accuracy by using the size and shape of the pipe bowls to determine their age.  Because tobacco became more affordable through the ages (at least until very recent times!), in general the smaller the pipe, the older it is likely to be.  The pipes found in the chapel are thought to be from the late 1600s and early 1700s - quite an amazing thought.

Other finds included a number of ‘jettons’ or ‘reckoning counters’ – coin-like objects used in the calculation of accounts.  Jettons would have represented a value, by means of their position on a reckoning table (or cloth) also known as an abacus.  These items are thought to date from the later 1500s to the early 1600s, as their use probably ceased soon after this period.  Single copper coins of Charles I and Charles II were also found along with a copper token of Robert Bedford, a local businessman who was mayor of Coventry in 1650, and several lead tokens. 

The relatively large number of coin-like objects strongly suggests that schoolboys were playing games with them and used whatever counters they could get hold of.  Several small objects made from animal bone (a common material until the invention of plastics) seem almost certainly to be ‘apple-corers’, again probably belonging to pupils at the school.  These seem to date from the 1600s and 1700s (17th and 18th centuries).

We were also excited with the discovery of pieces of glass from the original stained glass window, some with painted designs and others which were red and blue in colour.  The windows would not have been the only decoration as glazed and patterned fragments of floor tiles from one of the building’s medieval floors (probably a 14th-century one) were also found.  A mortar surface exposed, 1.4m below the original floor level of the dig (in a test-hole to see if any medieval floor level survived) would have been the base for such a tile floor, showing how much the level had been raised within the chapel.  The question of why the floor was raised so much is still not certain.  All we do know is that it was not due to dampness or flooding as the deepest excavation was still dry even after the wettest January since records began!

The finds from the dig have now been taken away by Archaeology Warwickshire staff, to Warwick, where they will be cleaned and examined.  Some of the finds, such as the pottery, will be sent off to specialists.

As well as a large number of finds, the reduction of the floor level revealed a buried medieval feature within one of the walls.  This was a sandstone piscina, essentially a small basin in which a priest would wash the communion plate and chalice after a service.  The water used for this was considered sanctified and was often used for the poor and the sick (appropriate for a hospital).  The piscina is a useful find as it proves that this part of the building was used as a chapel and it was already believed that it was once the chapel of St Katherine.  The buried walls of the building were still covered by layers of medieval plaster and whitewash.

This work is just the very start of what will be a really important and exciting time for this fascinating 12th-century building, as bit-by-bit we carefully nurture it back to life as an important part of Coventry’s story.  We will keep you informed as work continues. 

For further information on the finds contact Dr Cathy Coutts, or Bryn Gethin at Archaeology Warwickshire, on 01926 412278.