The Society of Automotive Historians

The SAHB Motoring Literature Fair, AGM and Autumn Seminar was held this year on Sunday 20 October at the Holiday Inn in Bromsgrove. This followed an informal dinner the evening before at the same location, where members and partners could natter about cars and (a few) other things.

We also took the opportunity to present the SAHB’s Michael Sedgwick Award for the best motoring book in the English language, and the Malcolm Jeal Award for the best motoring article written in the English language.  That report is in the News section.

And there was another presentation: Jeremy Collins is a lifelong collector of share certificates – which almost always have beautiful engraved designs that promote the company concerned. Jeremey is disposing of his collection, mostly by auction. But he has very generously decided to donate all his motoring share certificates to the Richard Roberts Archive. The archive is a registered educational charity, entirely independent of the SAHB; but Richard is on the SAHB board and will be delighted to make the certificates available to researchers, at his Stockport premises. There will be a blog about this acquisition very soon on www.richardrobertsarchive.org.uk

Just one example of the wonderful share certificates.

Richard Roberts accepts the donations from Jeremy Collins.

After the AGM and the presentations, we were regaled with four talks – and a panel discussion that continued a successful format introduced at the 2024 Spring Seminar:

Ian Parsons:  Maps and roadways in Northamptonshire

Mike Wilds:  Walk on the Wilds Side (his career as a racing driver)

Christopher Balfour: Bristol Six-cylinder Cars (including the advanced prototype with rubber suspension by Alex Moulton)

David Blumlein:  Historic E.R.A. Limited – An Overview

Panel discussion: Is Jaguar a lost cause? – Hosted by Guy Loveridge  with a distinguished panel of experts.

Our thanks are due to all the speakers, the organisers from the SAHB and the staff of the Holiday Inn Bromsgrove, who all helped to make this a successful event.