I am delighted to tell you that the Archive pages have just been updated with a lengthy interview with E.C. Gordon England, conducted in 1974 by Bill Boddy (the Editor of Motorsport). Mention in Dispatches must go to Messrs. Marcus Ling, Ian Williams and Bryan Norfolk who were instrumental in tracking this down. None of these gentlemen are part of the Archive Project Team, so their contribution is indeed of note.

Thanks must also go to Coventry University and the 'Curve Project' who held the originals. They we very helpful when asked permission to use the resources.

You can find the interview here

http://archive.a7ca.org/collections/people/gordon-england/

We plan further additions to our 'Oral Histories' over the coming months..

Hugh

Location: Cambridge

An intriguing listen. But raises a myriad questions. Is there any more detailed account of his life available? How did anyone learn to fly? What form did the early gliders take; like the Wright plane or Bleriots? What were the changes he made to the first Austin supplied racers etc. The scope of auto work of his fathers firm?
Presumably he had some fast driving experience. 70 mph in an unlowered Seven not for a novice, esp if without shock absorbers. I think I would have felt safer in the glider.

(With the tea cup orchestra in the background, the memory, the side tracks, Boddys promptings, name dropping, wife’s answers, accents, the dieing tape recorder etc, if Peter Sellers or the Two Ronnies had heard the tape it would have been inspiration for a grand sketch!)

Location: Auckland, NZ

I've just been made aware of an error in my original announcement. The interview wasn’t conducted by Bill Boddy. It was done by Dr Kenneth Richardson of Lanchester Polytechnic (which later became Coventry University) during research for his books '20th Century Coventry’ and ’The ‘British Motor Industry 1896-1939 – a social & economic history’.

My apologies and thanks to my contact at Coventry University who pointed it out. We are correcting the description on the web site..

Hugh

Location: cambridge