Abbott coachbuilders of Farnham
 

Does anyone know anything about Abbott's in the context of fitting bodies to coaches. Whilst best known for cars, they did a number of buses and coaches in the 1929 to mid-thirties period. There is an Albion with an Abbott body at the SVBM, but no other survivors that I am aware of. My interest derives from my research into Gilford and I know they bodied them for Farnham Blue coaches and A Plott and J Goldman - Central London Motors.

Don't know who built these bodies:- http://www.truckandbusforum.com/gall...ge.php?i=14411

I didn't realise that this company was responsible for the Ford estate-car conversions:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._D._Abbott_Ltd

Abbott coachbuilders of Farnham
 

GW 713 coachwork is by Weymann. This is one of the few survivors having been taken into preservation by Prince Marshall. For a while it was stored by the Science Museum but his son is now restoring it and progress can be monitored on http://gilfordgw713.blogspot.co.uk/. The second vehicle is harder to work out because of the incomplete registration plate. It is a Gilford 168T, and the most likely candidate is probably OV 1328 which was fitted with coachwork by a company called Auto-Cellulose and first registered in May 1931. Its first owner was F. Partridge of Birmingham. There is one other registration number option that I am aware of and that is OV 242 registered in April 1931 to Burgess and Garfield in Birmingham. That option exists because we know it was a Gilford but not what model it was.

If my father was still alive (!) I'm sure that he would have remembered the registration and from whom my grandfather bought it . . .
(Those of you whose parents are still living (and retain their faculties) should ask as many questions as possible, because once they are gone there's no chance!)

Grandfather lived in Wingate Station Town County Durham and traded as John Robert Howe - if that helps. My photograph says "1932 Gilford, taken about 1935".

If only people would put more information on old photographs. I fear that digital photographs will be devoid of any useful information in 75 - 80 years time. That's if anybody has the means of showing them.

I have been told that we should digitise all photographic prints, but a box of prints stands more chance of surviving than a computer hard drive or CD/DVD. What sort of storage media will we using in 10 or 20 years time, never mind 75 to 80?

Someone finding prints can sort through them and assess their worth, whereas who will bother to set up equipment to scan through digital data that just might contain something worth keeping? If nothing else, the sheer volume of digital information being generated today means that it will be unlikely to survive.

If you back up your digital images/files, then they stand a better chance of survival. I've just backed up my "Record Library" twice.

Abbott coachbuilders of Farnham
 

I have no history of OV 242 post Burgess and Garfield. My preferred suggestion of OV 1328 went to Lanarkshire from Birmingham, I don't know when and have no follow on history. I have forwarded the picture to a fellow Gilford enthusiast and asked if he is able to help identify it.