Reading another thread prompted me to write this...

Years ago as a kid in the 70s I used to visit scrap yards with my dad when he was looking for bits for his cars, Landrovers, boats, or just bits to make other stuff out of. I remember on a few occasions we visited a surreal site, massive, indoor and outdoor sections, and one of the indoor sections was a huge warehouse with old complete Landrovers the length of the entire warehouse stacked 3 or 4 high on racking! Outside there were bombs, old artillery pieces, all sorts of eye opening stuff to a kid. It must have been some sort of ex forces storage depot but I can't remember where it was... I can't see the place still being around today, or even if it is there's no way they would allow the general public to go in and look around these days. I believe it was around the Doncaster area, can anyone fill in the blanks in my memory with any info about it?

Simon

In the mid 80's the MoD replaced all of their Series Land Rovers with Defenders and got rid of all the remaining complete cars and spares. Most of them were bought by one company and they went to a disused airfield somewhere near Litchfield. They had aircraft hangars full of spares and the entire airfield was covered in Series Land Rovers. All one price (£1750 each if I remember right), except any with 24V electrics were classed as commercial so had VAT added to the price. You walked around, picked out the one(s) you wanted and they craned it out for you. I bought a few LHD ones that went to France but there were LWB, SWB, soft top, hard top, lightweights, every version going, all you did was find one that looked decent. Some had dents in every panel and starship mileages, others were near brand new.

Then there's another place that is still going today, just off the A1 near Grantham but I suspect a few years ago there were quite a few places dealing in ex-MoD kit as there would have been so much of it about.

Trawling through this Forum, I've just read this. Could it have been L Jackson, The Rocket Site, Misson, Bawtry, Near Doncaster ? I too went there in Austin the '70s and was intrigued by the range of ex-military gear they had (including a Land Rover on steroids with 900x16 tyres - no, not a 101). I was there for a rear axle for my Champ...

Echo-Echo wrote:

Trawling through this Forum, I've just read this. Could it have been L Jackson, The Rocket Site, Misson, Bawtry, Near Doncaster ? I too went there in Austin the '70s and was intrigued by the range of ex-military gear they had (including a Land Rover on steroids with 900x16 tyres - no, not a 101). I was there for a rear axle for my Champ...

Still have the Champ?
Cheers,
Tom

No, the Champ went in 1972 in favour of a Ford GPW (Ford's version of the Willys GP), that went a couple of years later. Interestingly, having not been in a Champ since 1972, I was at a vintage gathering at Flookborough (Cumbria) 2 or 3 years ago and got talking to a Champ owner... "Can I sit in it, please ?" "Fiil your boots, mate". The interesting bit: All the controls fell to hand - the intervening 46 years hadn't dulled the memory...
Paul.

Echo-Echo wrote:

Trawling through this Forum, I've just read this. Could it have been L Jackson, The Rocket Site, Misson, Bawtry, Near Doncaster ? I too went there in Austin the '70s and was intrigued by the range of ex-military gear they had (including a Land Rover on steroids with 900x16 tyres - no, not a 101). I was there for a rear axle for my Champ...

Just seen your post.

It could have been, I'd probably have been too young to take much notice of the name of the place and exact area but I do remember it wasn't far from Doncaster so it may well have been the place in Bawtry.

The warehouse with Landrovers on racking was massive but I was more impressed with the shells etc in the yard!