One of the Astor fleet of cars.

One of the Astor fleet of cars.

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Having just returned from a holiday in the South Seas, one of the things in my e-mail box was a photo of a very young Lady Nancy Astor beside her new Rolls Royce. That then got me thinking of the 1930’s when the garages at Cliveden held a total of twenty cars, of which a great number were American left hand drive models. One of these cars was a silver grey Cord tourer, which had been given to the then Hon. William Waldorf Astor as a 21^st birthday present. By 1936 this car had found its way down to White Place Farm, there the front bumper was removed by the farm engineer Ernie Holland and a frame was attached to the chassis so a hay sweep could be attached. This of course would speed up the hay making process of bringing the hay into the hayrick elevator. Previous to this, horse pulled sweeps had been used. As little boys we enjoyed perched up on the back seat as Ernie drove around the field sweeping the hay. The car was then put in a barn and covered up until the next season. This practice carried on until the war and the car went back to Cliveden. I have no idea what happened to all those cars, most likely sitting in a museum somewhere, as today they would be a collector’s item.