This week the main Nostalgia article features the story of the first recorded journey in England in a motor car.

This took place on July 5 1895 from Micheldever in Hampshire to Datchet in Buckinghamshire.

The journey of 56 miles took 8 hours and 14 minutes, an average speed of just under 7mph.

Word soon spread of this journey and the incredible sight of the “iron horse”. Whole villages turned out to see this new marvel.

The attraction of what are now known as vintage cars is just as great today, as will be seen in this selection of pictures taken from the SWOP website www.swop.org.uk.

As part of the Coronation celebrations in May 1953, there was a parade of vintage cars. Here we see them turn from the High St into Queen Victoria Rd in High Wycombe:

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People await the line-up of cars during Feast Day on Gold Hill Common in Chalfont St Peter, June 1952:

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The American actor Miss Jean Carson rides in a vintage car to tour the Gerrards Cross Community Association Fair at the Memorial Centre, July 1955:

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Part of a display of vintage cars at West Wycombe Motor Museum, Chorley Rd, West Wycombe in the 1980s:

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A vintage car heads the procession for the arrival of Father Christmas in a horse-drawn carriage at Murrays department store in White Hart St, High Wycombe, December 1974:

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