Lost archives??? unbelievable chance meeting Sunday 25th Jan

[HIL4217INVADER]

Fellow club members,

I was out today spinning around in HIL4217 MkII Invader for an hour or so, truned on to my drive way and reversed in to the garage to tuck my baby away...turned around to be met by a complete stranger who had just caught a glimpse of my Gilbern as I turned off the main road and he had been circling around to try to find where the car came to rest.

After a polite introduction...I think he said his name was Ray, he gave me a long recital of the Gilberns he had owned (2 x 1800GT and 1 x Genie), he then explained that he only lived some 2-300 metres away and that he had a file full of original minutes from GOC meetings dating back in to the 1970s and that I could have them if I wanted them! True to his word, an hour later he has come back to my house armed with a 3 inch thick folder of meeting minutes, GOC member listings from 1978 with chassis and reg numbers, newsletters, various receipts, technical bulletins starting with Number 1 from 1976 etc. A real treasure trove of data and information.

It's amazing how pationately attached people get to Gilberns. He's was so pleased to come across one after such a long time!

I am happy to share the documents with whoever within the club is best placed to review the content. I am planning on a trip to Banbury in June so could bring the documents along.

I would be interested in knowing if there are any other club members from the South West / Bristol area who are intending to make their way to Banbury to maybe make up a small convoy!

Happy motoring

Peter

[Greybags]

Hi Peter..

What a brilliant thing to happen, just goes to prove Gilbern people are real friendly souls..

All old documentation is always good to see, especially if it contains some snippet of info that has disappeared from the records..

As far as the chassis number stuff, then the various marque historians would like to see that, and the minutes of meetings will probably be good for the club archivist..

Not sure how heavy it is, but if you want to post it to me, I can then arrange to scan it all and distribute it to the various people, and then return it when completed.

Let me know if that is OK, all my details are in the back of every Rarebit..

Thanks for letting us know about it and the offer to share it..

Grahame

[Fareham GT]

Hi Peter,

Any chance you could find out the gentleman's name, it would be nice to tie it up with the 2 GT's he owned. Is there any old membership cards in the paperwork, which may give us a lead.

Regards

Brian
GT Historian