Bromsgrove's Avoncroft Museum reunites dad with his Morris Minor Van after 40 years - The Bromsgrove Standard

Bromsgrove's Avoncroft Museum reunites dad with his Morris Minor Van after 40 years

Bromsgrove Editorial 1st Jul, 2016 Updated: 17th Oct, 2016   0

A MAN who rescued a Morris Minor van from a farmer’s field in Wales more than 40 years ago has been reunited with it at Avoncroft Museum where it is now on show after its refurbishment.

Martin Forster first saw the van NLW 918 when he was eight, being used as a chicken house. Then, at the age of 15, remembering the van and being a Morris Minor enthusiast, he managed to acquire it from the farmer and, with the help of his girlfriend, restored it to a roadworthy condition.

After the birth of his first child, he needed the money so sold the van to the GPO (General Post Office).

Martin always regretted selling the vehicle and his son Matt began researching the whereabouts of the van his dad had talked so much about.




Then when Matt found it was at the museum, he contacted staff there to ask if he could set up a reunion.

Then on June 15, on Martin’s 60th birthday, Martin and Matt visited the museum to see the vehicle and to share his photographs of the van which the staff at Avoncroft had never seen.


The visit, which also fell on Father’s Day, was an emotional one and, as a special treat Martin was even able to start the van up and drive it around the museum’s car park.

The driving instructor from Manchester said he was absolutely thrilled it was being preserved by Avoncroft and added being able to get behind the wheel had been ‘the drive of his life’.

He also confirmed the van was one of the earliest examples of its kind and, because there are believed to be only five left in the World, it was even rarer than the World’s most expensive classic car the Bugatti Royal as there are six of them in existence.

Mr Forster believes from his research the museum’s van is one of the first prototypes trialled by the GPO in 1953 before they went into production.

Two of the five remaining vehicles are owned by collectors in Australia and Canada.

Avoncroft’s deputy director Hamish Wood told The Standard: “It was great to be able to reunite Mr Forster with his beloved vehicle after over 40 years.

“You could tell by his face when he saw it how much it meant to him.”

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