EARLIER this month we printed a photograph of HC Preater's motor showroom and service workshop, taken when Henry Ford's Model-T was still the runabout driven by smart young men about town.

Among those who called us to say she remembered the showroom well was 92-year-old Phyllis Ricks of Beechcroft Road.

On February 2, 1933 her dad Tom King bought a brand new Ford 8 saloon there.

"There weren't many cars on the roads in Swindon in those days," she said. "As far as I remember only three houses in the whole of Beech-croft Road had one."

The smart blue automobile with shiny black mudguards cost Tom, who was a police officer, £100 plus delivery charge and the price of number plates. It was a sizeable chunk of a policeman's annual pay. But having taken delivery of it he discovered he did not like driving and rarely took it out.

"He didn't have the nerve for it," said Mrs Ricks. "So I began driving it, and I got my licence when you didn't need to pass a test."

Her husband Edward taught her on quiet narrow roads near Bluns-don Abbey, where it did not matter if she had to run on to grass verges to avoid oncoming farm vehicles.

"It was the only car I ever drove and I loved it," she said.

The Ford 8 was looked after with loving care by Mrs Ricks and her husband and serviced at Preater's garage, which stood on the site now occupied by Swindon Ford, which is part of the Hartwells group.

It had previously been occupied by a corn and seed mill owned by the father of Ernest Clement Skurray, who more than 100 years ago began selling cars instead of cereals.

Preater's eventually became Walker Jackson.

Mrs Ricks rarely did long journeys in the Ford, but covered many thousands of miles behind the wheel before she gave up driving in 1968.

From then until shortly before his death in 1984 she was driven by Edward, who had been an engineering fitter and turner

"I hadn't used the car for six months while my present bungalow was being built and seemed to lose interest after that," she said.

But she also did not want to get rid of it, until a neighbour Bob Griffin expressed an interest in buying it.

Mr Griffin, a carpenter, took it over in 1984, by which time the car had been well preserved but out of use for 18 years.

He also acquired its original sale note from Preater's, its old style log book, and even those petrol coupons which were issued for the vehicle in the early 1950s during the oil crisis which was caused by the invasion of the Suez.

Bob had to put up a fight to retain its original registration number WV 2755, issued by Wiltshire County Council which was then the local vehicle registration and licensing authority.

The Government was insisting that veteran vehicles should be issued with new registration numbers, he said.

The car, which also still has its old style running boards and signal arm direction indicators, is now being carefully restored.

He hopes it will soon be back on the road with engine partly rebuilt, orient blue and black paintwork gleaming and interior in showroom condition.

"My biggest problem is finding fabric of the same pattern as the original upholstery," he said.

If anyone knows the name of a specialist, supplier give Bob a call on 01793 723894.