What's parked on memory lane?

As a rule of thumb, I'm just not that into SUVs, unless they're old and iconic, in which case I love them.

I'm up in Oxford this week on a shoot for a BBC David Attenborough documentary. I grew up in these parts so it feels like familiar territory, with the filming location being just a turn away from where I went to secondary school. I nip out at lunch for a trip down memory lane. The school is down a dead-end lined with cars. I've ambled down here hundreds of times as kid - white shirt untucked, red and black tie, ill-fitting blazer. Half-term means an odd silence hangs over the street and I expect my first dose of nostalgia to be delivered by glimpsing the brutalist 1960s science block through a gap in the fence. What I get instead is even older - a tatty lichen-covered Land rover, warts and all.

Lichen Patina: Great in black but better with a few 'natural additions'. Also, check out the bonnet security measure.....

This 1959 Series II Land Rover was here, in the same spot, on my first day of secondary school, the best part of 20 years ago. I remember it clearly and even then it looked ancient and knackered. As each year of school rolled by I wondered why it hadn't been scrapped or towed. It certainly didn't look operational and I never saw anyone driving it. I always wanted to hear the 2.25 litre petrol 4-pot splutter into life. What I did know about it was that it belonged to some eccentric Oxford Don in the nearby college. How fitting.

I stand and take a few photos whilst noticing the tell-tale signs that it is still being driven, not least the fact all four tyres were pumped up. A quick google of the number plate on the .gov.uk website reveals that it was registered in July 1959 and that it is still taxed and road-legal until well into next year. So that solves the mystery of why it has never been towed.

There's something nice about seeing a classic vehicle out on the street, amongst all the other cars, rather than squirreled away in a driveway or a garage. They add charm and character; alleviating the bland lines of modernity all around.

I expect my first dose of nostalgia to be delivered by glimpsing the brutalist 1960s science block through a gap in the fence. What I get instead is even older - a tatty lichen-covered Land rover, warts and all.

The Series II is perhaps the most iconic Land Rover of them all. It's inline-4 motor was used for the next 25 years until diesels became more popular in the 1980s. It was also the grandfather of the 12-seater long wheel base land rovers that existed right up until the configuration was dropped from the Defender in 2002. In this guise it was classed as a minibus, even though it clearly wasn't, and therefore it got the tax breaks that meant it could be driven in bus lanes and even avoid the London congestion charge.

Style-wise the series II had its headlights much closer together than the series III, which gave it a more dainty appearance better suited to the more genteel age it was from. Due to changes in lighting regulations, the series III and subsequently the old Defender, moved the lights from close together on the grill to wider out on the front wings. The result was a tougher and more aggressive look that is recognisable on lots of the military and farming Land Rovers you still see today.

In 2019, this series II is 60 years old. I wonder how many more years it will live on this street in central Oxford? Maybe over the next few years it will have have been converted to a more eco-friendly power plant by the Electrogenic guys up the road in Kidlington. If it's still there in another 10 years, I might slip a bit of paper under the windscreen wiper and make the owner an offer. Seems very unlikely they would sell it though - I wouldn't.

Lawrence D'Silva