Withers of Winsford

[Team Blitz]

My mate, now long-lost after several job moves back to England, Mr. Nigel Gledhill, used to go on and on about this old Ford spares place called Withers of Winsford.

He described them as having anything and everything. I used to see an odd ad or two for them. Not any more for several years. I guess the proprietors name was Cal Withers.

Apparently, this place was epic and renown. Can somebody spill?

And Nigel, where in the hell are you these days?

[great68]

Any good www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWG,RNWG:2004-39,RNWG:en&q=withers+of+winsford%2c+ford+garage

[hairnet]

google it

they used to prep cars and stuff

not just ford either j tin too

[Team Blitz]

Google doesn't inform much. If all it took was Google, then this forum would be surplus to needs. I asked here, because A) you all are bunch of car nutters who have collectively forgotten more than Google will ever archive, and B) discussion is wanted about the olde days and what WofW was and what they did there.

Anybody here over 40 y.o. and from near Winsford parts? Or know a lot about Ye Olde Obscure Times? ;D

[Arfur]

Yo Norm,

I'm not yet 40, so I don’t know much. I’m not even sure Cal Withers is still about.

I ‘think’ Withers of Winsford were originally a car dismantlers, but got into building circuit and then rally cars from the late ‘50s onwards – not just Fords. They also supplied new and second-hand competition parts for Escorts. I believe they closed in the late ‘70s.

They were possibly best-known for sponsoring Chris Sclater’s cars. He was a semi-works rally driver who campaigned Escort Twin Cams, RS1600s and latterly Nissan weaponry.

Ian Harwood (who ran Ian Harwood Competition Parts & Equipment until he retired in 2004, and which is now GS Escorts), used to work for them back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s – they used to sponsor his MkII Cortina rally car, but he would never tell me that much about Cal Withers or the company.

Pick up any old copy of CCC or Hot Car from the ‘60s or ‘70s, and you will see one of their ads in the back.

From a purely Ford perspective, sadly like anyone else involved with the marque from this period, unless they had strong links with the parent company, they tend to get forgotten about, or written out of the marque’s history. That’s clever corporate marketing, I guess.

Si

[Team Blitz]

Thanks, Si. My buddy Nige used to crow about their spares depth (especially Escort, as I recall). I tried calling overseas a few times back in the 80's, never had anyone pick up the receiver. Wonder what happened to it all.