Captured in Blankenberge

Blankenberge is a little seaside town just south of Zeebrugge in Belgium. The postcard shows the ‘Tennispark en Miniatuurgolf’. It’s still there.

The building in the postcard is in the centre of the Google Maps image.

Regular readers of this blog will know why I bought it. A British-registered car abroad, when to take your car to the ‘continent’ was not such a common thing. To see more adventurers caught unawares in postcards, see the section ‘Holidays and GB Badges

The car’s a Morris, but without seeing the front it’s a little difficult to know which one. My guess is a Morris Oxford (Series 1 1948–54) or a Morris Six (1948-53). The Six had a six cylinder, 2215cc engine and was longer at the front to accommodate it.

1953 Morris Six
1953 Morris Oxford

Both looked like the Morris Minor at the rear and all were designed by Alec Issigonis before he designed what he is best remembered for, the Morris Mini Minor (the mini).

Morris Six

Having said all that I do have the smallest of doubts about this car because of what seems to be a seam on the rear wing and those extra lights (or reflectors) on the boot, but I’m putting those things down to the way the light is falling on the wing and the owner’s enthusiasm for extras. I have no idea what the car on the left is by the way, but someone will know 🙂

The registration, HTP687 tells us that our car was first registered in Portsmouth between April 1953 and March 1954 and unsurprisingly DVLA reports that sadly it is no longer registered.

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