Servicing a Humber Super Snipe.
A small folder of garage receipts has sat in a file here for a number of years. All the contents relate to cars owned by a Mr Luckarift who, for the most part, lived in Salford, Manchester, and most refer to a Humber Super Snipe that he owned. The car was registered RNB 20, but I think this was a private number as one item of paperwork shows that after the Humber, it was transferred to a Jaguar 3.4 litre. An MOT certificate from 1964 is made out for a 1951 Super Snipe registration MFM 963 (at the time belonging to Rootes of Manchester), shortly before it passed to Mr Luckarift, which I assume is the same vehicle.
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The invoices raised by firm F. Taylor of Salford Ltd in Pendleton, have consecutive dates - namely the 16th and 17th August 1967, for work undertaken in the mighty Humber. The first documents a 2,000 mile service performed on the car, which required 14 pints of Castrolite and 1 pint of Castrol XL oils to be used, the car's mileage at the time being 63,642 miles.
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On the following day, the Super Snipe received a new exhaust silencer, before heading back to its owner's home at 5 Godfrey Road, Salford 6. No charge was made for its fitting.
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Research online brings up details of a company in the area called F. Taylor & Sons, also based on Bolton Road in Pendleton, Salford, but rather than being a garage business, was a company that designed and built a number of hydraulic cranes, amongst other things. It seems like too much of a coincidence for the invoiced work shown above and the crane manufacturer to both be on the same road, with the same name, but to be two separate businesses. The invoices don't actually refer to F. Taylor being a garage, so presumably it was more of an engineering concern that also did work on cars. Perhaps Mr Luckarift (full name Edward F. Luckarift) was a regular customer of Taylor's, or worked there, hence the exhaust fitting being F.O.C?
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Other possibilities include Mr Luckarift being the Edward Luckarift who spent his final years living in North Wales that featured on BBC TV's Heir Hunters programme some time ago, who was a BBC scriptwriter for "That Was The Week That Was" amongst other things. After all, it's far from a common surname so it seems quite likely to be the same gentleman. Other paperwork from the same file will be uploaded to OCC soon.
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As for the two registrations referred to above, neither RNB 20 nor MFM 963 are still in use. Presumably the majestic old Humber is also long-gone.
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Return to the Motoring Collectables section for more items of interest to vintage and classic car enthusiasts.
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