MORRIS HALFTON 'FOXTROT ZULU TWO'

[oskar22211]

This will be following the journey of SVX277K a morris half ton van that turned out to have a great story to tell ...... enjoy

[oskar22211]

In September 2021 I was looking for a new project .... ideally a half ton van.
I had almost given up hope until I was offered one at a reasonable price .... A deal was made, and I found myself the owner of a teal blue Morris half ton registration SVX277K.

[oskar22211]

I brought the van with the intention of modifying it making it into a rat looking works van and fit triumph tr6 wheels, mgb engine and overdrive gearbox, fit an austin a55 saloon front and start cruising around

[oskar22211]

It was a couple of weeks later roughly that I was starting to clean the old girl out when I started noticing things that reminded me of an ex-police car that I used to own .... the more I looked around the more I noticed so my suspicions started to grow that this vehicle may be an ex-police van ...... but was i right or could it have just been a replica at some stage in its life, it has had 7 keepers after all ......

[oskar22211]

Evidence of roof beacon and ariel

[oskar22211]

Switch holes on the dash

[oskar22211]

Roof air vent although blocked off

[oskar22211]

Spotlight holes on the front panel

[oskar22211]

It was then i started joining various groups to try and find some history on the van even though I knew it may not get anywhere.
I found some great groups along the way and found some really helpful and nice people who I enjoyed talking to and getting to know.
Some of the groups are ......
Emergency vehicle restoration
Old uk police cars
PVEC
Austin a40 Cambridge a50 Cambridge a55 Cambridge
Just to name a few ........ they are all well worth a look.

[oskar22211]

My 1st clue came from someone who informed me that SVX was a Essex registration and sent me a photo of an Essex police dog unit and to be honest I was shocked by the similarities between the 2 vans ..... The colour, the placement of roof beacon, spotlights etc this picture is of PC les theobald from the Harlow section

[oskar22211]

It was sometime later that I had a message from a great guy who told me that he remembered the van as he had worked in the same division and gave me the drivers name as Len Terry .
So at last I had clue number 2 and I even had a name all I had to do was try and find Len if he was still around or at least find some information about him ...... This did not prove to be an easy task.

[oskar22211]

I had tried so many ways to get some history for this van....
Dvla would not give information.
Gaydon had no history as there was a fire in the mid 70s and all records after 1968 were lost.
Essex museum had no record of the vehicle
Essex registry had no record of it.
It was then suggested by someone to try Essex records office ?
ok worth a go because if they had no record of it there was no one else to try !

[oskar22211]

So I had an email from Essex records office and to be honest i was not expecting much at all .... BUT they had a record of its 1st keeper on file and provided me with a copy of this register.
here is a copy of what was found vehicle number 277 interestingly 278 and 279 where mini vans

[oskar22211]

Words cannot explain how happy I was to finally have proof that 277 was officially a known police van again, its history was slowly coming together

[oskar22211]

Shortly after this I was talking to a gent off of one of the groups who suggested joining another site The Essex Police and Southend Photo Group.
On this site I asked if anyone knew Len terry and someone who knew him contacted me and after all the searching, I got to talk to Len Terry and he was now in his 80s but what a great guy very polite and full of knowledge .

[oskar22211]

After a few conversations with Len ( I'm sure I must have been annoying acting like his number 1 fan lol ) he not only gave me information on the vehicle but of his own history in the service aswell.

[oskar22211]

Len informed me that he was a Dog Handler at Grays Division from 1969 until 1979, He started with the section in 1962 being based at HQ and Clacton before moving to Grays.
He also provided me with an awesome photo of himself with his dog sabre pictured with the van.

[oskar22211]

Photo of the Essex dog units at Hylands Park

[oskar22211]

Len also provided me with photos of his companions while he was in the dog section.
Pictured with Len is Sabre 1962-1972 and Jago with trophies 1972-1984 and finally Oscar his last dog that sadly passed away at a young age of 4 years old

[oskar22211]