1929 Bentley family heirloom for over 8 decades

 

It was Lucy Wills, a great friend of my mother Marjorie Farnsworth, who first purchased the Bentley. Lucy's sister Peggy had married a gentleman named Bill Hamilton; they farmed at Irishman Greek Station in the Mackenzie High Country in New Zealand. Lucy was so captivated by the area when she went to visit them that she decided to purchase a nearby property, Lake Tekapo Station.

 

She asked my mother to come out to New Zealand with her and help run the station. She wrote to Bill, who was a self-taught engineer and very knowledgeable about cars (he owned a Sunbeam and a Bentley, which he later raced very successfully at Brooklands), asking which car would be suitable for the rough, shingle roads of the Mackenzie Country. He replied. "A Bentley of course."

 

 

So, in 1929 Lucy purchased a new 4½ Litre Touring model and had it shipped out from (Cricklewood, ahead of her arrival, to Jones Motors in Fairlie, where it was uncrated and got ready for the road. In those days, it was a necessity to have a decent car in the back roads.

 

Lucy drove it continuously for the next 20 plus years. Later she purchased a Riley in conjunction with my parents and the Bentley was used less often but she drove it until her death in 1981 at the age of 79, when she left it to my husband, Tony, with whom she had enjoyed many rallies and trips. My family has been closely linked with Lucy since my birth; I grew up driving in it so it has always been very much a family car and it, is still in our possession today. Two owners in 82 years but in the same family!

 

The car is painted in black and original touring green; it has a fabric body, which was repaired in the 1960s, and the original green leather upholstery by Vanden Plas. Because Lucy was profoundly deaf. Bill recommended that she have a Rev Counter (tachometer) installed to help gauge the gear changes; he also recommended Marshall headlights (as he considered the Bentley lights to be inferior) and the addition of a fog lamp. The original tyres were 620 x 21 but Lucy moved to 525 x 21 to make the steering easier on the shingle roads. On Bill's recommendation Bentley Motors supplied double skinned mudguards and leather and metal baffles over the petrol tank and lights for protection from the shingle, and the addition of running boards. Lucy also had a special padded canvas radiator 'waistcoat' made for protection against the severe winter frosts.

 

 

In its heyday, Lucy drove the Bentley all over New Zealand, sometimes towing a small collapsible caravan. In the winter, she fitted special mud grip tyres and she used to feed Lucerne (alfalfa) hay to her beloved merino sheep over the back seat or from a trailer towed behind.

 

There are many stories of camping holidays and river crossings with the Bentley having stalled in the middle of a river after the flywheel sprayed water onto the magnetos. Lucy always used to say you could not drive too slowly or it would boil!

 

One of my earliest memories as a little girl was driving in the Bentley. I always got carsick but for some reason, I never got sick in the Bentley. I can remember listening to the shingles hit the underside of the car.

 

Later, I learned how to drive in the Bentley. Lucy taught me herself!