Pale Rider
Legendary Member
The thread elsewhere in cafe about tractors reminds me of the time my brother and I smashed into the wall of Harry Ferguson's house.
It was the early 70s, and we were returning late at night from a trip to London.
The journey involved crossing the Cotswolds.
As we left Stow-on-the-Wold my brother lost control of the car on ice.
It was downhill and we smacked head first into a long stone wall, demolishing about 30ft of it - the car came to rest facing backwards.
I was in the front passenger seat and smacked by head against the windscreen, but didn't go through it.
A couple in a Rover stopped to offer assistance.
No mobile phones, so they took us to their house nearby to phone the police and an ambulance.
The car was blocking the road, it wouldn't go forwards, but I managed to reverse it onto the verge, accompanied by much scraping and horrid mechanical noises.
At the nice couple's house, I recall my brother's hand was shaking so much he couldn't drink a cup of tea without spilling it.
They gave him a straw.
It was they who told us we had managed to smack into Harry Ferguson's wall.
The next day we returned with a recovery vehicle to get the car, and to confess to the owner of the house.
First person we spoke to was at a gatehouse, which we managed to find a little way down the road.
He told us 'sir' would see us, but warned us he would not be happy - we were not the first drivers to hit this ruddy wall.
I recall driving through magnificent formal gardens to the Big House, I had never seen anything like it before.
Another flunky showed us into a drawing room to await sir's arrival.
As we waited, I had a nose at a card on the mantelpiece.
It was from Lady someone-or-other inviting the owner to a ball - how the other half live.
Sir duly arrived, and as predicted, was not happy, bordering on angry.
He ticked my brother off as to the manner of his driving.
Brother, quite reasonably, pointed out accidents in icy conditions happen, the car was fully insured, and we had got there as soon as we could to discharge our responsibilities.
The meeting didn't last long, and off we went with a very poorly car on the back of the recovery truck.
We had the last laugh, to a point.
The insurance company later contacted my brother, and the feedback he got was they were holding sir responsible for the accident.
Their inquiries found he had not been maintaining his drains properly, so the insurer's view was it was his fault the water/ice was on the road.
If only we'd known that in the drawing room.
To be fair to the Ferguson family, I'm not certain if the owner we spoke to was one of them, they might have sold the house by then.
I see it was put on the market last year for a little matter of £30m:
http://www.cotswoldjournal.co.uk/news/11300607.Cotswold_estate_goes_on_the_market/?ref=rss
Any other colourful car crash stories?
It was the early 70s, and we were returning late at night from a trip to London.
The journey involved crossing the Cotswolds.
As we left Stow-on-the-Wold my brother lost control of the car on ice.
It was downhill and we smacked head first into a long stone wall, demolishing about 30ft of it - the car came to rest facing backwards.
I was in the front passenger seat and smacked by head against the windscreen, but didn't go through it.
A couple in a Rover stopped to offer assistance.
No mobile phones, so they took us to their house nearby to phone the police and an ambulance.
The car was blocking the road, it wouldn't go forwards, but I managed to reverse it onto the verge, accompanied by much scraping and horrid mechanical noises.
At the nice couple's house, I recall my brother's hand was shaking so much he couldn't drink a cup of tea without spilling it.
They gave him a straw.
It was they who told us we had managed to smack into Harry Ferguson's wall.
The next day we returned with a recovery vehicle to get the car, and to confess to the owner of the house.
First person we spoke to was at a gatehouse, which we managed to find a little way down the road.
He told us 'sir' would see us, but warned us he would not be happy - we were not the first drivers to hit this ruddy wall.
I recall driving through magnificent formal gardens to the Big House, I had never seen anything like it before.
Another flunky showed us into a drawing room to await sir's arrival.
As we waited, I had a nose at a card on the mantelpiece.
It was from Lady someone-or-other inviting the owner to a ball - how the other half live.
Sir duly arrived, and as predicted, was not happy, bordering on angry.
He ticked my brother off as to the manner of his driving.
Brother, quite reasonably, pointed out accidents in icy conditions happen, the car was fully insured, and we had got there as soon as we could to discharge our responsibilities.
The meeting didn't last long, and off we went with a very poorly car on the back of the recovery truck.
We had the last laugh, to a point.
The insurance company later contacted my brother, and the feedback he got was they were holding sir responsible for the accident.
Their inquiries found he had not been maintaining his drains properly, so the insurer's view was it was his fault the water/ice was on the road.
If only we'd known that in the drawing room.
To be fair to the Ferguson family, I'm not certain if the owner we spoke to was one of them, they might have sold the house by then.
I see it was put on the market last year for a little matter of £30m:
http://www.cotswoldjournal.co.uk/news/11300607.Cotswold_estate_goes_on_the_market/?ref=rss
Any other colourful car crash stories?