MEMORIES 299, in The Northern Echo, included a wonderful line-up of cars parked outside the Buck Inn in Northallerton in May 1962.

Wonderful if you like old cars, that is.

And plenty of people do. Our panel of identifiers was pretty unanimous, so from left to right, we have: YKG 780 Austin A55 Cambridge, PDU 377 VW Beetle, OZ 731 Triumph Mayflower and 934 CXJ Austin A40 Farina Mk 1. Anthony Crooks said: “I served my time at the Cleveland Car Company which was Standard Triumph dealers in Grange Road, and these cars were a nightmare to work on as they had side valve engines with aluminium heads that were hell to get off.”

WPY 545, this was the contentious vehicle. Most people had it down as a Vauxhall Velox or Cresta – “it seems to be one colour and the Cresta was usually two tone”, said John Biggs, of Etherley Grange – and one person suggest it was a Humber Hawk.

Usually, we are in no position to arbitrate, but Peter Cowton, of Cundall, near Boroughbridge, said: “It is a Cresta without a shadow of doubt. I passed my test in that car four days before Christmas in 1962.

“WPY 545 was my dad’s car, Reg Cowton, a farmer up Nether Silton. He would buy it new from Walkers in South Otterington, who were a Vauxhall dealer. It was a bloody good car. It was blue, and when he bought it, it had white walled tyres – we thought he was an American gangster.”

Our car identifiers also spotted on the back row: Morris Oxford, Humber Hawk Mk6, Vauxhall 10, Minx phase 8, pre-war Morris 10, Bedford CA van, Standard 600-weight van by the church.

Members of the car panel included: Pamela Davison, Barry Chapman, Mark Cooper, Bryan Foulkes and Frank Headen. Thanks to them all.

THE numberplates caused some interest, particularly that of the Triumph Mayflower which was registered in Northern Ireland. KG was from Cardiff, DU from Coventry, XJ from Manchester and PY was a North Riding vehicle registered in Middlesbrough.