A barn-find Daimler? No, it's a rockery-find...

| 6 Apr 2018
A barn-find Daimler? No, it's a rockery-find...

Many of us may dream of one day finding a valuable classic hidden in a barn, but few think to look down the bottom of the garden. However that's exactly where Tracy Ward and her family uncovered a 70-year-old Daimler during a spot of weeding. 

Tracy and her husband Chris moved into their new home in Rue du Felconte, Guernsey in November and recently decided to tackle the overgrown garden. They enlisted the help of Tracy's parents Brian and Babs Russell, and it was Brian who first realised the rockery was built on top of something distinctly un-rock-like.

"I said what we wanted to do and my father began to dig with gusto and hit something with his shovel," Tracy said. "We thought he had hit a stone."

Further investigation revealed the rusted frame of the car, as well as twisted metal window frames, broken glass and rotting leather upholstery. Finally, the discovery of metal plates confirmed that the vehicle is – or rather was – a Daimler.

A barn-find Daimler? No, it's a rockery-find...
A barn-find Daimler? No, it's a rockery-find...

The car's licence plate was found, together with a plate that would have been attached to the gear box

Among the surviving parts are the vehicle's number plate – GUK 880 – and a plate for a "self changing gear box". 

Local experts believe the car to be the remains of a Daimler Consort – a model which was produced between 1939 to 1953, and that it dates from around 1949.

"It's a Daimler, there's no question about that," Guernsey Old Car Club president Michael Fattorini told the BBC. "The radiator is a Daimler radiator, the plate on the gearbox is a Daimler plate.

"The very fact it has a chassis makes it pre-1960s. The radiator we have found is post 1930s." 

A barn-find Daimler? No, it's a rockery-find...

Cue hundreds of people digging up their gardens this weekend

How the car got there, though, is a mystery.

The house was built in the 1950s or 1960s, but the part of the garden in which it was found was bought from a farmer at a later date.

Tracy's own theory is that someone took the vehicle on as a project, but ultimately decided it was too much work and instead buried it.

She is, however, keen to find out the truth and has requested that anyone with information about it contacts her via Facebook.

All images courtesy of The Guernsey Press