Hayling Island in Hampshire, like so many traditional British seaside resorts, has inspired some fantastic Modernist architecture.
Behind the roller-shutter doors of one of its Art Deco-style garages, however, you’ll find a shrine not to the 1930s but to the jives, rock and roll, and particularly the automotive excesses of two decades later.
“It’s all about evoking the memories of my childhood,” explains owner John Deverell as he leans against the wing of a rare 1958 Zodiac Farnham Estate – one of six 1956-’58 ‘Highline’ Fords on his fleet including the earliest-known MkII Zephyr Convertible built by Carbodies, car number 13.
“My dad didn’t own a car, but my uncle had Zephyrs, Crestas and Vanguards, and they always appealed to me.
“When I was growing up I carried a Spotter’s Guide everywhere and would fill it in with where I’d seen a particular car and its registration number.”
If you’ve visited the Goodwood Revival, there’s a good chance you’ll have seen his super-early ‘flat-back’ MkII saloon in the Earls Court display – there’s also a couple of 1954 MkI Consul and Zephyr convertibles (the latter with a triple-carb Aquaplane head), plus a pair of MkIII estates.
