# Arthur's Car Graveyard July 2018



## mookster (Jul 15, 2018)

Those who know me know I have quite a nose when it comes to seeking out car graveyards and this accidental find is one of the best I've seen for a while.

Whilst on my travels heading home after a top day of exploring me and my fellow car graveyard finding friend passed a quite abandoned looking house with a huge corrugated metal fence stretching all across the front of it. With our curiousity piqued we pulled over and quickly realised that getting into the grounds of the house was going to be a real chore as I had never seen a more overgrown site before. After pretty much tunnelling through dead trees and bushes and brambles and stinging nettles suddenly we were rewarded with the sight of a pair of Jaguar XJ6s and a Mk.1 Ford Transit box van buried in the undergrowth. Little did we know that was only the start, as further into the land more and more cars began to appear before us.

Realising we'd found something quite special we went about taking photos and whatnot. The grounds are so overgrown a lot of the time there was spent trying to walk in an undignified crouched position between the cars and all the overhanging dead vegetation. After an hour or so with darkness on the horizon we left, and after that I pulled the aerial view up on Google Maps and quickly realised we'd missed over half of the plot of land as well as the house so made arrangements to go back ASAP.

The day came to go back and with a plan of action made we quickly got into the site from the other side. After poking around a bit we found a whole load more vehicles, plus we investigated the house which sadly wasn't too interesting - mostly empty save for one weird room upstairs which had loads of paperwork taped to the walls and a dresser. After digging around we also found the old owner's details as well as - I assume - his relatives who took over after he died. From the paperwork inside it looked as if the house was last occupied around 2005, although the vehicles appear to have been there a lot longer than that!

It was obvious the owner knew what type of vehicles were the ones to keep, as we counted around a dozen Mk.1 and Mk.2 Transits of various kinds, at least six Mk.1 and Mk.2 Escorts and three Jaguar XJ6s as well as all sorts of other random stuff. 

These are photos taken over the two visits - on the first visit I took most of them handheld so they aren't as great!






































































































And a few from the house to finish off.































Thanks for looking ​


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## hippygoth (Jul 15, 2018)

Great find . 

Apart from the obvious Mk1 & 2 Escorts and other cars you mentioned I can spot an Ambassador, Rover SD1, possibly a Mk4/5 Cortina (the red T-reg), S2 Landy.

Being a bit of an Escort nut, sad to see the state of the Escorts, especially the estates as not many of those have survived.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Jul 15, 2018)

An illegal dump causing god knows what contamination to the local ecology. Lets hope this bit of exposure can get the clean-up started. A number of decent collections parked on properly drained hard standings have been forced to shift or been broken up because they were well known and the EPA could easily enforced - lets hope the owner/relatives in this case can be forced to act.


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## krela (Jul 15, 2018)

Dirus_Strictus said:


> An illegal dump causing god knows what contamination to the local ecology. Lets hope this bit of exposure can get the clean-up started. A number of decent collections parked on properly drained hard standings have been forced to shift or been broken up because they were well known and the EPA could easily enforced - lets hope the owner/relatives in this case can be forced to act.



You say this on every car post, is it really relevant to the forum?


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## mookster (Jul 15, 2018)

Dirus_Strictus said:


> An illegal dump causing god knows what contamination to the local ecology. Lets hope this bit of exposure can get the clean-up started. A number of decent collections parked on properly drained hard standings have been forced to shift or been broken up because they were well known and the EPA could easily enforced - lets hope the owner/relatives in this case can be forced to act.



It was a fully registered business (scrapyard) back in the days when rules were less stringent. The owner likely passed away and the relatives went on living in the house going by the paperwork I found inside.

By your logic Lakes Autos on the A1 has been operating illegally for decades, and they are a fully approved and registered vehicle dismantling company that just happens to store all their cars on grassland. In fact going by that logic nearly all of the car graveyards I shoot that were once people's private collections of vehicles are illegal.


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## smiler (Jul 15, 2018)

With all the gear we carry, just in case, maybe we could add a cordless hedge trimmer? Liked it Mookie, Thanks


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## krela (Jul 15, 2018)

smiler said:


> With all the gear we carry, just in case, maybe we could add a cordless hedge trimmer? Liked it Mookie, Thanks



You've clearly never tried to clear thick brambles with power tools... an industrial petrol cutter or pigs are the only effective tools, preferably both! Speaking from hard experience of many broken tools.


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## mookster (Jul 15, 2018)

krela said:


> You've clearly never tried to clear thick brambles with power tools... an industrial petrol cutter or pigs are the only effective tools, preferably both! Speaking from hard experience of many broken tools.



Or a flamethrower


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## smiler (Jul 15, 2018)

mookster said:


> Or a flamethrower



I've got one Mookie, as well as petrol trimmers and strimmers, I've cleared a fair few acres of brimbles and nettles reclaiming lost meadows and I fecken hate em almost as much as I dislike weedkiller, I could probably rustle up a :ew swine. Stay Safe


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## HughieD (Jul 15, 2018)

Cracking set that Mook. Love the way the ivy has grown round the car wheels in pic no.5.


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## Mikeymutt (Jul 16, 2018)

Loving that mooks.a real great find and glad you went back and uncovered more.i do love a nice car graveyard.i hope they don't clean them up to much


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## BikinGlynn (Jul 17, 2018)

Ditto that's a cracking find, The cuts & stings r worth it!


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