• Advertisement
Welcome! If you can see a big advert here, you're not logged in. Log in, or if you're not registered, register, and then log in, and the big ol' advert will disappear. (Subject to admin getting the settings right)

The Cars of Potton Manor

Where the lost, lonely and mentally ill can now be found chatting about MISERABLE motor vehicles. No O/T posts.

The Cars of Potton Manor

Postby Barrett » Wed May 16, 2012 1:48 pm

Recovered from the old forum.

Mr_Bu77ox wrote:I remember an article in a late 80's issue of thoroughbred and classic cars (from my grandad's collection of mags), with the above title. The article featured some photos of a beautiful old house with a load of funny little cars called 'Champions' INSIDE it in various states of completion, and all covered in dust and muck. I think the house was being cleared out and the article was about what treasures were found inside. I dont remember much about the story except I have in my head that it was intriguing and appealed to my early teen old shite car leanings.

This is the car:

Image

I had a search today while at work, the story is class, the guy behind it sounds like a great character. i won't bore you with the story myself, read a bit about it here:

http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/News/Secrets-of-the-driven-genius-buried-under-posh-new-homes.htm

another decent story is on this PDF:

http://www.pottonhistorysociety.com/Whats%20On%20Archive/News%20Letters/021%20PHS%20Newsletter.pdf

heres a couple of snaps of what I think is 1 of two surviving cars (sorry, I can never fathom out how to link Flickr pics):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitbywoof/1357879081/

Does anyone else know the article i'm talking about? I'd love to find it and read it again.




I.K.Brunel wrote:Excellent!

I have read this tale a couple of times over, it's one of those that they wheel out in the local rag when it is a slow news week (and it has to be really slow, I mean you would not believe the level of local trivial dullness in the "Biggleswade Chronicle"). However it's always the condensed version.

I might hunt out the full story:
http://www.pottonhistorysociety.com/Potton%20Publication%20Pages/Potton%20Manor%20An%20Enigma.html
I'll go and have a look in the library, they will deffo have it.
Maybe I can get a 'pass' for a nose around shutts too, I don't think I have actually been round the collection since I stopped working there in about 1996.


(Here is the complete article as it appeared in the May, 1985 issue of Thoroughbred and Classic Cars, written by Michael Ware. Any spelling/ grammar errors are my own)


The Cars of Potton Manor

Since 1979 Michael Ware has been researching a most unusual story. What follows is only the tip of the iceberg.

The wording on a tombstone in the churchyard at Potton in Bedfordshire simply reads:
In remembrance of
Eva Marie Pokorova
Died Potton Manor, Potton
on December 6, 1977
and
Otto von Smekal
Died January 17, 1966
Co-founders of
The delta Motor Research Co,
Potton

This epitaph hides a story which not only involves a motor car company which, to all intents and purposes, never existed, but also a scientific formula for turning tar into into petrol which was smuggled out of Czechoslovakia just before war broke out. It involves a Doctor of Engineering and his mistress, both aliens, but allowed to work in this country during the war on the secret petrol process; a High Court Action; the moving of the laboratory equipment to a Victorian manor house in Bedfordshire; experiments in deadly secret; the supposed manufacure of the Delta car; seven years of failure to make the vehicle; the building of a sports car that never ran; the death of the scientist; his partner living as a recluse for 14 years; the house being left exactly as he died.
Otto von Smekal and Maria Eva Pokora worked together in Czechoslovakia in the thirties developing a system for producing petrol from coal or tar. Little is known of the background of either if them except that Madame Pokora, later known as Pokorova, was reputed to be the second best lady racing driver in Europe after Madame Junek. Otto Smekal at some time, I believe, worked for Skoda. In 1938 when it was realised that there would be conflict with Germany, a number of firms in Britain looked for alternative means of making petrol and J Cowan, representing the Sheffield based chemical firm, Newton Chambers, approached the Foreign Office with the idea of obtaining from the Czechoslovakian Ministry of Defence, a licence to produce chemical plants based on Smekal's process. At first the Czechoslovakian government agreed but later there was a delay. Smekal obviously wanted to bring his process to England and the following correspondence, now in the Public Library at Kew, explains what happened next.
February 25, 1938 Letter from British Legation in Prague to Foreign Office. "The whole affair is wrapped in the atmosphere of an Edgar Wallace novel. Cowan has hinted to us from time to time the possibility of Smekal committing suicide or being imprisoned, or even 'bumped off' by the Czech authorities. The story does not lack its heroine, namely Pokora (the 'partner'). There was a lady secretary of German Jewish extraction who is supposed to be double crossing everybody. We have breathed a sigh of relief on each occasion when Cowan has come to announce his impending departure. We are grateful to you for making it quite clear that His Majesty's Government can play no part in smuggling Smekal out of Czechoslovakia..."
April 1, 1938 Foreign Office minutes, "The story gets more and more sensational as it proceeds. Mr Cowan called today, this time to tell us that he had been successful in smuggling Mr Smekal out through Germany and that he was now in Britain. Mr Smekal's departure was proceeded by a violent row with the Czech authorities who tried to compel him by third degree methods to accept their conditions... He is now in England and has been given facilities to start his process here on his own terms and I understand from Mr Cowan that the ground has been bought for him to build a factory." It must be presumed that Madame Pokorova came out with him.
Kenneth Cooper who knew the Smekals some 15 years later told me that the papers for the Delta process were sealed in a false compartment in the petrol tank of the car. Otto Smekal and Madame Pokorova came to live at 8 Staindrop Cottages, Chapeltown, Sheffield, and set up Delta Laboratories with the full cooperation of Newton Chambers Ltd. During the next few years much experimenting took place, many patents were drawn up but by 1943 things were not going well and Smekal writes to Nottingham University asking if they can analyse samples of his fuels.
Professor Arthur Cummings of the University remembers him well. "I went to see him, Smekal never stopped talking for a whole day... he had a dodgy process; sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't" By 1944 Newton Chambers who were financing him were getting fed up with the lack of progress and issued a writ against Otto Smekal. The end result of this was Smekal and Pokorova disappeared from Sheffield, taking with them, according to a schedule attached to the High Court action, 'the racing car'. this is the first mention of any motor car experiments and I believe this car was an experimental rear-engined device which was originally fitted with a Chapuis Dornier engine. By March 1946 they had settled at Potton Manor, a large Victorian house set well back in its own grounds on the outskirts of the village of Potton near Biggleswade. From the beginning a high fence was erected around it and all comings and goings were extremely secretive. Nobody was allowed up to the house unaccompanied and all visitors were met at the outer gates. Mrs Gray, who lived at The Lodge which waas not part of the Manor property, says "All the equipment must have been moved at night for I was never aware of any large deliveries. I was often disturbed by unidentifiable noises coming from the manor. On one occasion only, I and a neighbour were invited to the house... I was amazed at how much apparatus and equipment had been amassed..."

The Delta Process

The equipment to which Mrs Gray refers was a huge chemical processing plant which had been erected in the ballroom of the manor house and was presumably the Delta process for turning coal and tar into petrol. Various rooms were devoted to experiments with car engines, one room was a chemical laboratory and there was also a darkroom and photographic studios. Plans do exist which show it was intended to manufacture fuel at Potton Manor and pipe it directly to a filling station situated on a triangle of land outside the main gate! By 1949 Otto Smekal was writing to see if there were any firms who might me interested in the Delta process. Many letters were sent but nobody purchased the process.
A letter dated July 15, 1953 is the first mention of the Champion project and the fact that Smekal was trying to raise cash for it. Smekal claims he had rights to manufacture the car in this country but I can find no letter from the firm authorising it. The Champion was a German company which first started manufacturing small two-seater cars in 1947, the engines being 250cc, 400cc and 450cc. By November 3, 1953 one of the cars had been registered MNM 451. It was entered into the MCC/Daily Express National rally driven by JP Slatter and W Bennett. While the car finished the rally, it could not have been said to have been particularly successful. Throughout 1954 letters were being written to try and raise cash for the Champion project; eventually Delta Motor Research Company was registered with a capital of £4000, one of the directors being the Hon M W Elphinstone FRPS, AIBP and a Mr J Scales-Manners, both fo whom had great interest in photography, a hobby they shared with Otto Smekal.
Apart from NMN 451 I can find no records relating to the import of any other Champion car, In 1954 the Champion firm in Germany was taken over by MAICO and I am under the impression that MAICO would not continue to supply Smekal with cars, though there are invoices relating to spare parts.In June 1954 Delta bought two second-hand Champion cars from Germany with a number of Champion second hand car spares. At some stage Smekal had name badges and hub caps made with the word Delta on them and the original Champion car NMN 451 was so adorned. Presumably it was his intention to market it as a delta and not a Champion.
From 1954 onwards Smekal tried to sell the rights to manufacture Champion cars to many different firms. I must have seen something in the region of 100 different letters to engineering firms both in this country and abroad. Hindustan Motor Company of India were interested at one stage as was the Indian government. In February 1956 Bill Heynes , then engineering director at Jaguar, visited Potton Manor. He recently told me: "I clearly remember visiting Potton Manor. The place had double locked iron gates. There were two Alsatian dogs and the front door was double locked as was his office. Madame Pokorova and a male assistant showed me the drawings and demonstrated the car. It was just a variant of the many Polish and East German cars of its type, with nothing very special about it. I have often tried to find some record of my visit but it is some years since I retired and I think I must have destroyed any I had."
In October 1957 Stirling Moss visited Potton Manor to look at a 700cc car, possibly a racing car, which had been built by Smekal, without the knowledge of the other directors. Recently when quizzed on the subject, Stirling Moss said he had no recollection whatsoever of the visit, but I do have a copy of the letter that he wrote to Otto Smekal after the visit. In 1958 William Elphinstone duied and this must have been a blow to Smekal and Pokorova, because for many years he had, I believe, been their only source of income. Over the next few years I can find little trace of what happened, except that Smekal sold practically everything of value he possessed (he had a number of pre-war cars, including an Austro-Daimler, a 541S Fiat, a Delage, a Mercedes-Benz 38/250, a 1937 Ford V8, a 1933 Chrysler Silver Dome two-seater and a 1933 Singer 14hp four-seater). He also sold his photographic equipment and his guns.
On January 16, 1966 Madame Pokorova telephoned a doctor, said that she had someone who was very ill in the house and could the doctor please come to the top of Kings Street where they would see someone flashing a torch. Madame Pokorova then took the doctor to see Otto Smekel who was dying of very advanced cancer; he was taken to hospital where he died the next day. As far as I can tell almost everything in the house was left exactly where it was on the day of his death and after that Madame Pokorova lived the life of a recluse, often occupying only one room. for the next 11 years she was seen by few people and her groceries were delivered once a week. On December 6, 1977 she died. The police were called to the house after Madame had not been seen for some days. On arrival at the house they had to climb over the front gate, break open the front door and break open a number of upstairs doors which were locked and had their handles removed. She was found dead on the bedroom floor with a bunch of keys in her hand as if trying to reach the locked doors. Police searched the bedroom and found £1500 in cash hidden in the bed which was formed out of old newspapers.
In December 1979 all the motoring items from Potton Manor were purchased by the National Motor Museum including all the remaining Champion/Delta cars, engines and many bits and pieces associated with other motoring experiments. The National Motor Museum intends to mount an exhibition about Potton Manor after which it will most probably keep one of the Champion cars, MNM 451, and part with the others.


Image
In the ballroom could be seen the bodyshell of the proposed Champion/Delta sports car while in the foreground the nose of the single seater racing car can just be seen

Image
Amid the dereliction lies the only complete Champion, MNM 451, the date, 1979

Image
This extraordinary apparatus converted tar into petrol

Image
Potton Manor in 1979 following the deaths of Eva Pokorova and Otto Smekal

Image
A partially completed Champion lurkes in the once splendid Potton Manor Conservatory

Image
Eva Maria Pokorova relaxing with one of her dogs. Normally the Alsatians guarded the perimeter fence

Image
Otto von Smekal was fond of guns and had quite a number. Later they had to be sold to raise cash for his projects

Sid wrote:Good Morning !

I read the post regarding Potton Manor with great interest as i used to go there as a foolish youngster and still have some bits around that i picked up from the house:

I was first taken there at the age of 17 or so < now 49> and it was like the owners had gone out one day and left it exactly as it was. rumours that the cellar contained machine guns ? was our quest - we never found the entrance but spent weeks looking to gain access as you do when young:

I believe the cars are now at Shuttleworth nr Sandy along with all the other stuff - this was like visiting the place that Frankenstein was created - really scary sort of place <given we should never have been in there>
The whole place was full of stuff, pickled gooseberries in the cupboards - bits of every imaginable mechanical items scattered everywhere from Gyro's for helicopters to engine blocks etc: etc:

At the time I had as my company car a modified Morris ~~Minor pick up truck with a over bored Sprite engine in hand painted green!
into the rear I loaded what i thought were old WW1 bombs that I imagined had been made safe - they rattled about in the back of the pick up all the way back to St.Neots.

After some years I sold these to a mate who owned a scrap yard - he then sold one on - until the bomb squad arrived with him one morning stating they were live !! <Ooops> you can imagine my scrap man was not impressed.
so luckily I am here to tell the tale - and very grateful to read your post - it was as pictured c/w every item of live one might expect - books clothes and as I SAID the hint of WW2 machine guns in the cellar was our main focus:

P.S there were military type enclosures in the grounds, dog runs also so the whole place to to us seemed to be part of the Tempsford Airfield "S.O.E" sort of place:

later in life, a mate confirmed his grandmother lived in Potton and during the war - they always saw large "flash" cars full of men entering the place - when the cars left they were empty ?
So we always imagined this place was part of the War effort - the hint of SOE and sheer size of the LAB - workshop and weird electrical thing in the the ball room seemed to make sense then:

Otto Still owns the patent for the Delta Process - given the world we now live in ~ I wonder if with modern technology this might now be more relevant:


garethj wrote:Welcome, sid. And thanks for bumping this topic I hadn't seen, I remember reading the magazine article in about 1992 when I was getting into Tatras.

sid wrote:
P.S there were military type enclosures in the grounds, dog runs also so the whole place to to us seemed to be part of the Tempsford Airfield "S.O.E" sort of place:

My grandfather flew from Tempsford in Lysanders, handy because they didn't need much speed or runway to take off.

Cracking photos of the Manor's interior, who wouldn't love to have a crumbling Victorian pile filled to the plaster ceiling mouldings with old cars.


Sid wrote:No Problem, Hey that place was fantastic - so when I saw the post I had to join up as for years if you told anyone about this place they would not really understand - now the pictures are there it;s real again:
No iPhones ~ 32 years ago sadly ! - but Tempsford SOE and Engines of every sort ended up as a life long interest:

Its inspired me to go to Shuttleworth and see that car again, I sat in once in the house "nasty little thing" would not fancy crashing in that thing !

Cheers..Sid
Hoow do I go to my thread ? How do I find my forum ? Howdo I go to the page I am typing?
User avatar
Barrett
SIR IAN McKELLAN
 
Posts: 165
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 8:03 pm

Return to Bitter Men

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests

cron