Dennis veterans celebrate centenary M ith summer fast becoming a pleasant
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memory, there could be no better way to greet the autumn than to spend a day in leafy West Sussex celebrating 100 years of the Dennis vehicle company And so it was that the Hawk headed south to the Amberley Industrial Museum to join dozens of enthusiasts, sightseers and fans of the famous old marque.
Travelling down in his trusty Reliant Robin , the Hawk cast his mind back to the early days of the Guildford firm. Was it not a tale of two brothers, John and Raymond, who started out making bicycles before progressing to cars, lorries, buses and fire engines? (And, lest we forget, lawmnowers-Ed).
Indeed it was. And Amberley was graced by a range of the company's products over the years; many renovated by enthusiasts. On hand was John Dennis, managing director of the coachbuilding side of the business: he's the grandson of the original John and the one remaining member of the family in the business.
He came to the rally with his 1902 Dennis P26, founseater car which he renovated for the centenary celebrations. John has no record of the car's original owner but says it was taken back by Dennis in part exchange in 1910. It languished in a garage until 1934 before being overhauled by John's father and has been a runner ever since.
June Coakes from Cork Mullen., Dorset pictured at Amberley with the 1946 Dennis Max which she has owned since 1989. It started life as a tanker in Portsmouth. June drives the vehicle and helped her husband John to renovate it to its present splendid condition. Back in Dorset they run their own haulage operation.