- Bird's Eye iew BY THE HAWK
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Unlike the latter Society, however, the CVRTC interests itself in goods as well as passenger vehicles. Anyone interested in joining (or donating to the club) should write to N. J. Painting, 356 Cooksey Road, Small Heath, Birmingham 10.
Perkins-powered Pints
EVERY evening about 250,000 people throughout the Midlands enjoy a drink at home—thanks to the Davenports "Beer at Home" service and a fleet of Perkins-powered Commer Walk-Thru vans. The home beer service was first conceived in 1903 by Baron John Davenport, appalled by the unhygienic conditions in which beer was then kept and served in some Birmingham taverns.
Today, the Davenports service uses more than 200 vehicles. From the brewery at Birmingham, beer is taken by a fleet of attics to 12 main depots, Manchester and Leeds in the north, to Bristol and Potters Bar in the south. Smaller vehicles then deliver to customers, usually each making 100 calls a day on local stop-start delivery runs.
The Walk-Thru's, powered by Perkins 4.203 diesels, were introduced into the Davenport fleet thret years ago and the company has now standardized on them for this type of work. They are returning an average of 20 m.p.g. on stop-start deliveries.
Ye 4 h.p.
GUESS what may well be among swinging 1967 Britain's most popular coach tours this summer: authentic 18th :!entury four-in-hand stagecoach runs from Runnymede to Stratfordon-Avon and back.
The company concerned is 18th Century Travel Ltd., of Queen Anne's Gate, London. Its three stagecoaches for the three-day (each way) tours were used on old mailing runs in Britain in the 1700s. They seat 14 passengers in (modern) comfort and clip along at an up-hill and down-dale trot of 10 m.p.h. Cost is £50, including hotel accommodation and breakfasts.
Coachmaster George Royston Peter Munt is the latest in a family of horse contractors dating back to stables in Chiswick in 1950.
I like the idea—particularly as a tourist dollar-earner. But let's hope the authenticity angle doesn't spread: a real, live highwayman could prove somewhat embarrassing!