Morris ¼ ton Post Office Telephone Van

I took this photograph at the 6th Northern Classic Car Show at G-Mex, Manchester in August 1987.

It's a 1954 Morris ¼ ton Series II Post Office Telephone engineer's van, and I've found a photograph of this actual van on the website of the Morris Minor Owners Club which says this about the Morris van:

'The main users of these vehicles were the General Post Office and the Royal Mail. The Royal Mail vans were each assigned to a specific driver, unlike the Post Office vans which were shared out and driven by anybody. Consequently, the Post Office vans took a bit more of a hammering than the Royal Mail vans, so in an attempt to reduce the damage to the front wings caused by careless parking, the Post Office had specially produced rubber wings fitted to their Series II vans.

These distinctive green split-screen Post Office vans were also fitted with an opening driver's-side windscreen. Hinged at the top, the driver could push open the windscreen to provide ventilation and stop his cab misting up. It is features like this, and the wooden ladder on top of the roof that make the Series II Post Office van one of the most distinctive and different Morris Minors of them all.'

I particularly remember the bit about the rubber wings because many years ago one of my responsibilities when working for GPO Telephones was to assess reports of traffic accidents involving GPO vehicles and deal with the insurance companies representing the drivers of the other vehicles involved.