Strike me! There’s a Daimler buried in the back yard

As Britain finally gets to enjoy some much-anticipated spring sunshine, many choose to make a start on gardening plans for the year ahead. What isn’t generally anticipated is a classic car holding up proceedings…

It seems things are very different in Rue du Felconte on the island of Guernsey, where homeowner Tracy Ward and her father Brian Russell have discovered the remains of what’s thought to be a Daimler from the 1940s or 1950s.

Having recently bought a new home in November last year, Tracy recently decided it was time to tackle the very overgrown back garden. She enlisted the help of her parents – and a weed-covered rockery soon revealed an unexpected surprise.

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Upon hitting an unyielding object beneath the surface, the family thought they’d found the remains of a tractor, owing to the fact that the end of the garden had previously been part of a field.

However, as the family continued to dig, they uncovered a rusted chassis as well as twisted metal window frames, decaying leather upholstery and broken glass – all of which confirmed they had actually discovered the remnants of a car.

Further excavation also led to the finding of an engine block, gearbox and front bumper, as well as a number plate with the registration GUK 880.

Tracy said she was ‘very surprised’ by the car’s presence on her property, while her father Brian added: ‘There’s plenty more underneath.’

Local motoring enthusiasts have been keen in their efforts to further identify the car, which has been confirmed as a Daimler. So far, clues as to the vehicle’s provenance have come from the registration number and an information plate that would have been fitted to the gearbox.

Additionally, the fact that the mystery motor possesses a chassis suggests that it was constructed prior to the 1960s. It’s believed that the Daimler may have originally come from the Wolverhampton or Birmingham area, and that it had a black exterior and dark red upholstery. A tentative manufacture date of 1949 has been suggested, with guesses as to the exact model so far favouring the DB18 Consort.

Speaking about the recent find, Heather Fattorini of the Guernsey Old Car Club said the reasons for the car’s burial were ‘all a bit of an unknown’, and suggested that a previous owner of the house may have started renovating the vehicle before giving up and putting a rockery over the car to hide it.

Prior to the advent of modern recycling centres, it was fairly common for non-combustible rubbish to be hidden in the garden; numerous baths, sinks, engines and paving slabs have been found beneath similar rockeries in the past few decades.

Club president Michael Fattorini added: ‘It’s a Daimler, there’s no question about that. The radiator is a Daimler radiator, the plate on the gearbox is a Daimler plate.’

Since the unusual garden discovery, Tracy Ward has posted about the car on social media, saying: ‘Ideally, if it’s of interest to anybody we’d like them to come and take it away. If not claimed, it’s likely to be reburied, or taken to the scrap yard.’

If you know how this Daimler ended up buried, please get in touch.

Pictures courtesy of Guernsey Press and the BBC

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