Cars and former owners to reunite, as club celebrates centenary of Armstrong Siddeley Motors in Bamburgh

Their unexpected reunion with the 1951 Hurricane vehicle occurs as a centenary celebration of the car’s maker, Armstrong Siddeley Motors, takes place this weekend.

This event has been organised by the Armstrong Siddeley Owners’ Club.

The daughter of the first owner of the 1951 Hurricane spotted the car on a motorway near London, despite it being a different colour to when she knew it as a young girl.

She contacted the current owner, David Welch, through the Armstrong Siddeley Owners Club and was told about the Bamburgh celebration on July 6 and 7.

It was discovered the car’s first owner sold it to a cousin who lived in Bamburgh, the late Commander B.H.Dunn R.N., and he too will be re-accquainted with it at the Victoria Hotel in Bamburgh tomorrow (July 6).

An anniversary tour will start with a display of about 20 Armstrong Siddeley cars at Bamburgh Castle on July 7, then on July 8 the cars will visit Cragside House, the former home of Lord Armstrong.

The final day of the centenary tour on July 14 will be marked by a large static show of Armstrong Siddeley cars in the War Memorial Park in Coventry. So far over 90 cars are booked in for this, just a few miles from the factory where they were built.

This occasion will be marked by a flypast of the Avro Lancaster from the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Wing.

Members of the Armstrong Siddeley Owners’ Club will drive from Bamburgh Castle, the current home of the Armstrong family, to Kenilworth Castle outside Coventry, which was the home of John Davenport Siddeley, the first Lord Kenilworth.

The Armstrong Siddeley factory was in Coventry and between 1919 and 1960 produced over 80,000 cars, which in their time were a by-word for quality, recognisable by their sphinx mascots.

The Armstrong name within the motor company came from Armstrong Whitworth, the heavy engineering, armaments and ship building company based in Newcastle.

The Siddeley name was from Siddeley Deasy, a company that began making cars but branched out to making aircraft and aircraft engines too.