The Early Morris Society

[Ian Grace]

Thanks Jeremy, that would be really useful. Remember that the registers won't be available to the public, just Society members who can access the Members' Area online.

There's no great rush, it will take me a day or so to generate the registers!

[Toby]

Hi all, I don't know if it's just me, but... some clubs and owners don't like addresses to be available at all due to obvious security concerns. The register members book is a help but my minor wasn't in the club so only direct contact with Harry produced any info, and that was after an appeal in the newsletter had failed! It all sounds an immense but worthy task. One of my swb chassis may have come with that cms body but I've no way of remembering or finding out! I guess a register would answer these sort of questions! I have been looking at my old journals but except for the odd bit of register details published there are normally only reg.no's and years given. I assume this is no good as some have been broken since or No.s sold on? Incidentally there was negative comment on number dealing in the early '70s journals! I thought it was an 80s thing!!!
Do you want me to go through journals noting details Ian? Toby

[chris lambert]

I do share Toby's concern about personal information being too easily accessible and would always want my address protected by a password that was only available (exclusively) to club members. The information I am prepared to share with the cyber world at large is detailed in my Profile on this forum.
In the UK "Identity Theft" is a hot issue and is justifiably the cause of much debate. Apologies for going "off topic".
Chris

[Ian Grace]

The next step in the EMS website development will be pages dedicated to each model - providing photos, specification, leading particulars, their place in the Morris lineup, seasons, models, colours, etc.

Hopefully, these pages will provide a quick and easy reference to all the many and various models leaving Cowley before the war. I'm also going to include the early MGs.

I would prefer to illustrate each model with a set of good period shots rather than modern shots of restored cars, whose originality might be in question. If anyone has a good (high res if poss) shots - preferebly not generally published, of any model from 1923 to 1929, and taken before the war, I'd be most grateful.

Also, ANY vehicle details with chassis numbers would be invaluable as I start to build the Registers.

[Ian Grace]

Much midnight oil is being expended behind the scenes on the EMS right now. I have given the VMR registers their first major overhaul since we started in 2000 and come up with a much improved system of managing all the chassis data, owners' details, etc. I now have a single master chassis register spreadsheet in the VMR Member's Area which has separate tabs on the bottom for the OHC Minor, the SV Minor, the M Type and all the other pre-war Morrises. This spreadsheet is hotlinked to the members area of the EMS website, so when I make an edit, it is immediately updated on both sites. Each page of my master spreadsheet also contains info which I cannot put on the web - like contact details for non-members, as we have discussed above, but I have set up the columns so I can very quickly delete this info, then re-save the file under a different name and then ftp it to the website in 'clean' format.

The OHC Minor data is very much up to date (or as up to date as I can make it with what I know), and the SV Minor list is getting there. Also the M Types. I have listed all the SV Minors and Ms in the hands of VMR members and am now in the process of adding non-members' cars. The lists are in chassis number order, and the cars I don't have chassis numbers of are listed below the chassis by registration number. I have just acquired another 200 Mb of webspace so I can now start linking photos to each line entry. This is a ton of work, but will really pay off when we have many more cars to keep track of down the road.

To back all this up, I am in the process of completely re-arranging my photographic archive with a directory structure which includes directories for each model, and then sub-directories for each car by chassis number or registration number. That way, I will be able to immediately go to all the pics I have of any car.

Please go to either the VMR or EMS members' areas and check out the new master spreadsheet and see what you think. Please also help me fill in the blanks!

[Ian Grace]

More midnight oil expended. Just uploaded the latest master chassis register. Now with 23 models included. Have started filling in data being extracted from the web and Morris Register Journals - two issues down, piles to go! Now everything is in a single spreadsheet, it only takes a matter of moments to add a new car. At then end of the session, I simply delete the non-public data columns in each sheet and save away to the VMR website and it instantly hotlinks to the EMS site at the same time. I am now confident that vast amounts of data will populate the registers in the coming weeks.

On the photo front, I now have 169 separate directories for OHC Minors on my PC - all named by chassis number and including at least one photo of the car. I will now trawl through my entire collection and file all the photos away by chassis number. I have done the same for the SV Minors and M Types, but there are far less of them so far.

[Ian Grace]

The Chassis Register now has about 168 OHC Minor photos hyperlinked. The early MG's are also now fairly complete - 8 Bullnoses and 30 Flatnoses. Flatnose MG images to come.

[DF9053]

This is fabulous spent ages looking through it.

Is it me or do other people have trouble getting back from the picture to the spreadsheet? Clicking back takes me to the members page.

Cheers
Jeremy

[Toby]

Ian, Have come across a few survivors lists in '70s Journals, will try and send to you this week!

[Ian Grace]

Thanks, Toby - any and all input would be great. If you like, you can send it as is or use the pro forma I put on the site.

[Ian Grace]

Just uploading about 28 SV Minor images to the SV chassis register page...

[Ian Grace]

Jeremy just e-mailed me a superb update of the Morris Models spreadsheet to be found in the Members' Area of the EMS website. Definitely worth checking out. Next job will be to hyperlink the the individual model pages from it. This site is already easily the most comprehensive Morris site on the web.

Thanks, Jeremy!

[Ian Grace]

Enough for tonight. Now 727 cars on the Master Register. Spent most of today filling out the SV Minor register and adding images. 131 SV Minors recorded, with 98 chassis number, so we still have a very long way to go, but it's a start. I did the same for the M Types - 73 now recorded, 40 chassis numbers and plenty of images. A good day's work.

[Ian Grace]

Bit more progress - many more pics uploaded and more M Types added. I have just found my MMM Register - from 1982! It has around 300 M Types on it, so it is going to take me a night or two to add them all. Having a CHASSIS register - with chassis numbers is so useful. I wish the Morris Register would do this, particularly in these days when so many number plates are flying off our cars and on to BMWs! Hopefully, many of the entires will match the dozens of photos I have added to the M page, but did not know the chassis numbers. Of course, much of the owners' details are horribly out of date, but it is a start. Does anyone have a more recent MMM register? If not, I may have to rejoin.

I also have recent Bullnose Morris Club membership lists, but they are just that - lists of members without any vehicle details whatsoever. Really useful.

[Toby]

The morris reg did record chassis No.s and I will be sending some soon! Due to ltd space the only ones to appear in journals are Empire Oxfords, commercials taxis and buses, but its a start!