Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi there i recently purchased a 1959 4 door moggy and i am the third owner from new, first owner had it 54 years then sadly became unwell so sold it to the guy i bought it off and the car has been in solihul area from new until i brought it down south area in Havant,

I looked on line to find factories that would sell them in the solihul area but no luck, maybe other area it was purchased.

Is there an easy way to find out, just was curious as the first owner sadly hidden then lost some of the paperwork so the earliest paperwork dates back to 1979,

thanks.

A Heritage Certificate from the British Motor Museum will tell you which dealer the car was dispatched to and on what date (or at least it did for my car).

https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/ar ... rtificates

Stephen

A couple of suggestions:

A J Bayliss & Son Ltd. Retail dealers

Solihull Motor Company. Reciprocal retail dealers

Get a copy of this, it will give you more details once you have the BMIHT certificate

firedrake1942 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2026 7:18 am Get a copy of this, it will give you more details once you have the BMIHT certificate

Thanks for posting this! I do not want to hijack the thread but when I read it I started to think about the dealer who sold my own car. My car was delivered to Wadhams Ltd in Waterlooville, Hampshire but first registered with a Guildford registration number (PK). A bit of research revealed that Wadhams had been founded in 1905 as a coachworks and motor dealer and they had showrooms in a number of towns roughly following the A3, including Guildford.

Stephen

Wadhams became Wadhams Stringer sometime in the late '60s. I think they also built commercial bodies for Dennis chassis.

michael4 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2026 10:48 am Wadhams became Wadhams Stringer sometime in the late '60s. I think they also built commercial bodies for Dennis chassis.

Yes they built a large percentage of the bodies for UK ambulances amongst other vehicles.

Stephen

The Dennis factory used to be on the A3 just as you were leaving Guildford heading south at the beginning of the hill up to the Hogs Back.

Our old Jowett didn't like that hill.

I see you can also pay £15 if you're only after one piece of information from the "Production Record Request" section of the British Motor Museum Heritage Certificates web page, maybe if that information includes the original dealer information (contact them first and ask) it's a cheaper option for those who don't want to spend out the full £52 on the Heritage certificate.

If you obtain a Heritage Certificate it will probably show a dealership name but that dealer might have been a distributing dealer and is not necessarily the garage who supplied the car to its first owner. Most towns had an Austin and/or Morris dealership but they probably had to order their new cars through a Distributor rather than from the factory. Therefore it is not always as straightforward as you might imagine to establish who actually supplied the car
There was a great hierarchy of distributors and dealers in those days.