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THE HISTORY OF THE CLUB TO DATE.(OCT 1977)

The idea of a 1600E Owners Club was first brought about by John Danvers of Blaby, Leicester after writing to the letters page of Popular Motoring(AUG 1976) in answer to a letter about the 1600E and finished by asking whether or not an Owners Club existed for these cars.

The Editors reply was that no Club was known and anyone who was interested in possibly starting a Club should contact Mr. Danvers. It was at this point that I wrote to John, and there followed a series of letters between ourselves. During this time we were both making tentative steps in the forming of such a club and these were done in the respective local press, and these generated a few (or as in the case of Manchester)two enquiries, these being 1st, Mr.Sean Munster,who was until his recent withdrawal from the club as an active member, the Deputy Secretary.Sean is staying on as an Hon cry member. Next came Mr.Ken Gleadhill,who was Treasurer to the local club and is now Treasurer of the National Club as a whole.Through Sean came Wr.Steve Wrigley(Steve is the designer of the windscreen stickers)and is our Publicity Sec and through Steve came Mr.Bob Allenby.

After a short time came Mr.Bert Mainey who is now our Chairman. Bert is very helpful to the club in that he is responsible for the production of various club circulars,application forms etc. This was the position for a long time with various people coming and going through the club until John at Leicester wanted to expand the membership in the form of a National Register. This idea was looked upon with some disproval by the members of a local Leicester club so John withdrew(ln good faith)and came in with the Manchester Club, at the same time,enquiring if I would be prepared to handle the pile of letters that had arrived in response to the letters that had been published in the Magazine Hot Car & Practical Motorist.At the time of John starting the National Register there were a total of 55 letters,all of which required a reply.

It was at this time that things in Manchester started to get pretty hot,with John sending application forms,which were drawn up and typed in Leicester,usually with more enquiries about the club,ie.what were the Aims of the club,where would we meet,when would we meet tec.

This resulted in the Manchester end having to get involved with correspondence from all over the country,the production of new application forms and membership cards.The windscreen stickers had to be altered slightly and the meetings and locations we had arranged locally had to be reviewed and rearranged where necessary.After this,things started to get a little easier with the rate of enquiries dropping to about five per week.

The 1600E Club/National Register has been born and the Proud Parents of these fine cars wish us every success.

Our presence as a club has been published in the Ford newspaper"FORD NEWS"
That brings us to the present at which time the current membership stands at ninety members.

Richard Southern