Vintage Minor Register

I spotted a pair of these on the front axle of DO 7820, the earliest surviving Minor, back in July. I had never seen alloy backplates on a Minor before, and thought that this might have been a feature of the very early cars - although there is no evidence of them in the Morris literature that I can find). But while browsing John Wrigley's Minor catalogue from the fifties, I came across this item which I had not spotted before:



Has anyone else ever seen such backplates on a Minor or an M Type? Perhaps the ones on DO 7820 were Wrigley-supplied at some point in the past. I wonder whether John had them specially made, or whether they were an aftermarket item offered by Derrington or similar? Presumably they were/are a more rigid improvement over the pressed steel items, and I know that many larger vintage cars have such cast backplates.

Can anyone say more?

Here it is:

Given the problems people have with the steel backplates, - which would be almost impossible to reproduce,- perhaps new cast alloy backplates are the solution?

Doesn't Toby have some of these?

( Just found the thread - July 2009 )