Library revs up interest among carenthusiasts for sale of manuals

FOR generations of motorists, access to a workshop manual was a necessary element of owning a car.

As such they were popular volumes for lending libraries and Rotherham Central Library built up a stock covering hundreds of different models in the post-war decades.

Today the older copies are of little practical use because the cars they feature, such as the Austin A35 and Triumph Vitesse, have long since disappeared from everyday use on the roads.

But library staff believe they will still be of interest to classic car owners or those who may have owned them in the past and are now keen to own a copy for nostalgic reasons.

The manuals, which were produced in huge numbers by specialist publishers, also have a keen following from collectors, who may have an interest in some of the volumes.

Library staff believe the more unusual manuals include those for the Moskvitch, a model used as transport for Russian ambassadors in the 1960s, and the original Land Rover, from 1948.

Space restrictions and a lack of demand from library members mean some have to go and the library is putting more than 200 on sale from 9am next Monday, at a cost of 2 each. The sale takes place on the ground floor of the Central Library.