Ginetta House - Witham

[Mtyte]

Hi everyone,

I have recently purchased Ginetta House in Witham for my company which I understand used to be the Ginetta cars showroom in the 60s/70s/80s. I would love to receive any information or pictures of the factory/workshop as I would like to put some pictures up on the walls. I'm working my way through the Ginetta Pictures forum but thought I would ask in case anyone had anything else?

Many thanks,
Martin

[blueg33]

Try the Ginetta owners club

www.ginetta.org

[Mtyte]

Thanks, I will drop them an email.

[blueg33]

Another thought is that the family that started Ginetta is the Walkletts, they own and run Dare Cars. You could contact them.

[lmasarati]

Hahaha, that's funny, I've been there this morning with my son, we also took a couple of photo.
We were in a sort of pilgrimage in GinettaLand, yesterday we've been all the day with Ivor, Tom and specially Mark.

[h4887]

Trevor Pyman's book, 'Four Brothers' 4' has some pictures of both outside and inside of the factory.

Geoff

[dandarez]

It has more than a history of Ginetta Cars Ltd. It is steeped in motoring history!

I did a limited run of 2 prints (A4'ish size) years ago (early 90s) of the factory as it was in 1921 and 1925, when it was owned by Chas (Charles) Warren.

It was called West End Garage then, but later became West End Works as it was during Ginetta's time (1961-1986).

Warren was an agent for and sold Belsize cars, GN cars, Morris cars, and Essex cars (these were US brand not British, despite the name! They built race cars too, which raced in Salt Lake. Essex were later produced by the Hudson Motor Co, Detroit).

They were also general and repair engineers and in 1925 became an agent for Bean Cars.

I have the two prints framed in my study, it was a bit of a loss as we never sold many.

Making me wonder now what happened to the remainder? Could have dumped them when I moved out of my Unit, I just can't remember.
Think I'll be searching the loft tomorrow!

[Mtyte]

Thanks for all the info, much appreciated.

[dandarez]

Stuck my head through the loft hatch today and thought that's going to take some sifting through that lot!

So no luck - I will have to set aside a day to sort and clear what's not needed.
Hopefully, those prints are still there.

In the meantime, here is a pic of one of the framed ones (not very good because of reflection and camera playing up).
This is the building in 1925.

[Mtyte]

Thanks, that's a great picture.

[janetgyford]

I have a few photos of Ginetta House, including before it was Warrens. I'll look them out next week I hope. There was once a chap making a film about Ginettas, but he was going to get back to me when it was done, and he never did. I have his name somewhere I think. Also there is a book by Bob Walklett called "Ginetta,the Inside Story, 31 years of British Specialist Car Manufacture" pub in 1994 and now going for £185 on Abe books ! I expect you know about that. My interest is in Witham, not in cars, because I live here and write about it. I wonder what the building is going to be used for now, have you decided ?

[h4887]

It was Colin Hards who was making the Ginetta video. Sadly although all the filming was done he never got round to putting it all together. A great shame!

Geoff

[lmasarati]

Last Sunday, driving back from Silverstone Classic, we stopped for a last pint of oil...

[h4887]

How many pints did you use?

Geoff

[lmasarati]

h4887 said:

How many pints did you use?

for the full journey and return I used 2L of oil and about 40L of fuel... it's like a 5% mix :-)
most of the oil has been lost through leakages from the sump, but some has been burnt, according to the dirty black spot on the bonnet

[h4887]

That was for a round trip of, what, about 220 miles? I didn't think a G15 could burn so much fuel! And I think you need a longer tailpipe

Geoff

[Mtyte]

Nice picture, I'll post a similar one next time I take my G15 to the office.

[lmasarati]

h4887 said:

That was for a round trip of, what, about 220 miles?

Quite correct, maybe 250 miles including some wrong ways and the route to and from the bed and breakfast. Don't know exactly because the speedo is not working.
I used the satnav to keep below the speed limit (well, mostly... we had some full throttle at 8k rpm, just for fun )

h4887 said:

I didn't think a G15 could burn so much fuel!

most of the times I was on A roads with 60 or maybe 70mph limit, my car has shortened 3rd and 4th so at that speed you're always in the range between 5000 and 6000 rpm :-)
and under 4k rpm I think that the fuel is simply pumped through the cylinders into the exhaust without even burning it...

h4887 said:

And I think you need a longer tailpipe
Geoff

Definitely! I'll add a couple of foot of pipe and a trumpet at the end

[dandarez]

h4887 said:

That was for a round trip of, what, about 220 miles? I didn't think a G15 could burn so much fuel! And I think you need a longer tailpipe

Geoff

Nah, he needs an Aston Martin DB4 box (as used on the Imps years ago), the tailpipe points downwards and it's bound to be quieter.

Mine was but in the end I had to cover it up when a copper decided someone was going to burn their shin (his!) on it.

I have just remembered why I fitted an Aston silencer across the back (on my Imp, not Ginetta). I'd left a hump-back bridge at fairly rapid rate and landing smashed the 4/1 exhaust manifold and Peco exhaust, and split a doughnut but was nothing compared to passenger's headache after hitting the roof!

Memories, eh.

Edited by dandarez on Saturday 28th July 22:10

[WarrenResearch]

Hi dandarez

Many thanks for your info uploaded to the forum - and to others contributing, too - all very interesting!

Charles Warren of West End Garage is my great-great-uncle. He was born in Ipswich in 1878. I have a photo of him which I think is from the turn of the 20th century which appears to show him in a chauffeur's uniform, ie., with hat and driving gloves. On the back of the photo it says "Poplar Hall, Witham", which I think was his address in the 1920s/30s.

It looks like he fell on hard times in the '30's, with the business failing and also his marriage and I don't know what happened to him after that, though it looks like a son of his (also Charles, born at Witham 1918) was a Spitfire and bomber pilot in WWII, receiving the DFC.

Would you have any spare prints of the West End Garage photos from the '20's? I'd be very interested in buying one, if so, and I'm imagining Charles senior might well be one of the people out the front of the garage in the photo you uploaded.

Regards
Shane Hines
Ipswich