Video: Forgotten garage full of auto treasures

Lifelong bachelor Clifford Fevre had always had a reputation for being a bit of a compulsive hoarder, filling his house in Doncaster with all manner of weird and wonderful objects.

But his relatives are now discovering the vast extent of his collecting and just how much he cherished his Triumphs.

Tucked away in a rotting wooden garage, which was on the verge of collapsing, were a Triumph Gloria from the 1930s and another Triumph model from the 1970s.

The older model is be auctioned off later this month.

For his niece, Jean Hunt, seeing the cars again was a trip down memory lane as she recalls taking trips out in the Gloria in the 1950s.

She said: “I remember being a little girl and feeling very posh in that car.

“When we went out in Gloria there would be three in the back and I would sit on the bump between the footwells.

“I can picture the car now. I felt like showing off when I was little but I was embarrassed when I got a little older.

“At the time we didn’t have a car, so to go out in Gloria was something special, although it was such a performance to get the car out.

“Clifford would take 20 minutes to get it out because the garage doors had to be opened in a certain way and then there were gates to open.

“My dad died when he was 50 so Uncle Clifford was a replacement father in a way; he was a wonderful man.

“He was a lovely person, very baby faced. I remember he was a 25mph man, a very steady driver.”

The Gloria made its final trip in the 1960s and was then garaged for good.

“Clifford told us not to tell anybody it was in there. It was always this big secret.

“I have not seen Gloria for years and years.”

The Gloria was passed down to Mrs Hunt following the death of her mother, Eunice, who inherited Mr Fevre’s huge collection, much of which was kept in the house they shared in Bentley in Doncaster.

The house contained furniture and collectibles dating from the last 100 years.

For a time there was even Mr Fevre’s rusting Hillman Minx parked outside the garage but that had to be scrapped.

“Yes, he was a hoarder,” said Mrs Hunt.

“He kept everything – income tax papers going back decades, receipts from wood he bought in the 1950s, and lots of things that belonged to grandma and great-grandma.

“He kept a lot of things that were his mum’s. He could not bear to part with them. He also kept granddad’s tools as mementoes as much as anything.”

She recalls that Mr Fevre worked as a joiner but also invested in property and was able to retire at the age of 40.

He worked on Wellington bombers during the war, and sorting through his possessions has been an emotional experience, Mrs Hunt admitted.

She added: “Partly it has been ‘wow’ at finding something that has been in a box for decades – but, for the rest of it, it has been a job too far.”

Leeds auctioneer Gary Don is preparing to auction the Triumph Gloria on Tuesday next week.

He said: “It needs a lot of restoration but all the bodywork looks good.

“It has been in the garage about 50 years.”

While he claimed that placing a value on the Gloria is a difficult task, Mr Don expects there to be interest from collectors of Triumphs as well as American buyers.

“It has the look of a Prohibition-era gangster’s car. It’s a bit Al Capone.”

Mr Don claimed Mr Fevre’s house was full from floor to ceiling with good finds, most of which have already been sold.

He said: “There were two rooms that were full, from floor to ceiling. “It was an Aladdin’s cave – nothing had been thrown away for three generations.

“The piece de resistance was when we found the car in the garage. The garage had fallen in and protected the car.

“We found all the original manuals and literature to do with the Gloria.

“When this car is done up it will take pride of place in someone’s collection. It is a real find.

“It is all original and hasn’t been messed around with.”

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