Rallying call to Jowett owners I WAS once the proud owner of an old van made by the unique Jowett car company from Yorkshire. It was the second vehicle I had ever driven (first was a 1934 baby-sized Austin 7 Ruby).

Eventually, I sold that totally-dependable Bradford van for £25. But, oh, how I wish I had hung on and put it in mothballs!

For today there appears to be much prestige in owning a vehicle which rolled off the Jowett production line in Bradford from 1906 to the shut-down in 1953.

The best-remembered Jowett model is probably the Javelin saloon of which more than 23,000 were built between 1948 and 1953. And they were sold in large numbers through their St Helens agents, Broughtons.

All this detail comes from Noel Stokoe of the Jowett Car Club which, I discover, has affiliated clubs in New Zealand, Australia and North America.

Noel is keen to contact former Javelin owners (he has a mint-condition green model of his own) who may be able to give details of their cars. He'd also be grateful for the loan of any old pictures that he could copy for the club archives.

Having had such a major agent as Broughtons (now Lookers Peugeot of Knowsley Road) Noel hopes that St Helens will prove a fertile hunting ground as he tries to build up a store of records in time for the Millennium.

He explains: "When the Javelin was revealed to the public in 1947, it created, in its own way, as much excitement as later luminaries such as the Mini and the Jaguar E-type."

With its advanced 'flat four' 1.5-litre engine, capable of carrying six people at 80-plus mph, this was the first all-new postwar saloon, and very advanced for its time.

I've had an occasional glimpse of a Javelin tootling around St Helens territory in recent times (this model has a real eye-catching look about it). So if the owner - or any former Jowett owners - could help Noel with his researches then they can contact him at: Noel Stokoe, Jowett Car Club, 16 Eskdaleside, Sleights, Whitby, N. York YO22 5EP, tel. (evenings) 01947 810179.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.