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The 60th Anniversary celebrations at Wythall Bus Museum

It was the 60th anniversary of the Morris~Commercial 10cwt J-type van this year. The J, J/B and 101 Register celebrated with a big get-together at Wythall Bus Museum on the outskirts of Birmingham.

In the end we got 29 J-types over the weekend + a dozen or so other classics, mostly Morris or Morris-Commercial. It has always been a unique attribute of the club that we suggest our members turn up in whatever else they own if their van is not available for whatever reason. Quite a few of our members own other classics. Perhaps the most interesting that turned up was a Morris Minor set up for classic saloon car racing - it sounded amazing! Furthest travelled van must be the ex-GPO planner's van owned by Bjorn Stennsen, who brought it back to the UK from Sweden for the event.

We undertook two road runs, both short. On Saturday it was a round trip of probably five miles at most, but 12 vans went out in convoy to the picturesque setting of Earlswood Lakes. On the Sunday we got a convoy of 16 to do a short run up the nearby dual carriageway and back, perhaps only 3 miles total.  It was a great feeling to be part of both and wonderful to see so many Js on the road at the same time.

Each owner bringing a club vehicle was given a goody bag, which was well received. We pulled together items from Cumberland Pencils,Trans Pennine Publishing, Greaves and Thomas and the NRMA in Australia. 

We do have a few items left, so I'm planning to put them to good use by providing the same sort of goody bag for vans that turn up at our next major celebration - the Classic Motor Show at the NEC in mid-November. 

The feedback so far has been that it was a great venue with extremely helpful and accommodating staff, and with a fine assortment of vans as well as the museum's own collection of buses and battery electrics to see. The weather stayed fine for the whole weekend, too. A great time was had by all, so much so that it is likely we will work towards a celebration like this every five years. No-one wanted to wait 15 years until the 75th!

A full list of vans in attendance, in no particular order:

JAV 160 owned by Jim Blackwell which came down from Aberdeen

477 XUK the New Zealand Boon's Bakery van now owned by John Rice

749 VRF a tipper owned by Dennis Bradley

XVM 892 owned by Jon Coleman

833 BLE an ex GPO planner's van owned by Ken Bennett, looking wonderful towing a GPO trailer

TGC 321 an ex GPO planner's van undergoing restoration by Steve Taylor

949 BYY an ex GPO planner's van owned by Ray Kings

AHW 391 an ex GPO planner's van now owned by Bjorn and Mona Stennsen in Sweden

KGF 133A also owned by Jon Coleman

PAF 764 owned by Bryn Jones

ONY 52 owned by Alex Veltze, and previously by Bryn Jones - in the early stages of restoration

NXL 699 owned by Kevin Quine

8444 UA owned by Peter Smith

KUT 319 owned by John Goldrick

344 CNM the custom van owned by Glynn Wiseman

224 TRE owned by Merv Whittingham

MSK 194 the Austin 101 that its owner Peter Page took to St Petersburg last year

DSU 221  owned by Nigel Cushion

IY 6577 owned by the Celtic Old Vehicle Owners Club and reputed to be the oldest surviving J-type

JJW 109 owned by Bill McMahon and the oldest surviving standard-bodied van in England

5003 NX owned by Harvey and Bez Pitcher

UMO 938 owned by Ken Cooke

VOR 390 owned by Iain McKenzie and undergoing restoration

JSK 870 owned by Trevor Batten

416 MML owned by Reg Chapman

SHU 224 owned by James Bunce

+ The Pitcher Family Pick-up

+ the ex-Malvern Maypole Dairies van owned by Simon Gravett

+ The ex-Australian van now owned by John Whitehead