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Vintage car burnt out in accidental blaze
COPY of retired police officer Steve Smith, from Bourne, with his vintage Wolsley 6/80 police car - which allegedly carried murderer Ruth Ellis - before it was destroyed in a garage fire last night
A HISTORIC car with a link to the country’s gruesome past has been badly damaged in a fire.
The 70-year-old vintage Wolseley 6/80 suffered major damage in the blaze that happened in a garage in Spalding Road, Bourne in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The car, a retirement present to former police officer Steve Smith, was burnt to a shell after what is believed to have been an electrical fault with one of the appliances in the building.
Distraught Mr Smith said he believed the car was one of only three left in the country and the car was reported to have carried Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom.
She was sentenced to death in 1955 for the murder of her lover, David Blakely.
Mr Smith is now assessing the damage caused by the incident.
The historic British-made car was one of the most popular police cars for a number of decades, having been produced between 1948 and 1954.
Chris Poland, publicity officer for the 6/80 and MO Club, said there would be great sadness if the car had been completely destroyed in the blaze.
He said: “It had a six cylinder engine and was very popular as a police car.
“There was a certain style about the car and it was very elegant.
“It was also quite a fast car for the time it was made.
“We think there are only about 150 still in existence, so now they are very rare.
“The club has members all over the world. Last year, when the floods were happening in Australia, there was a lot of worry about whether a car would be lost over there or not. Fortunately it wasn’t.
“People who own them love them very dearly. We had an AGM recently at the club, and the cars that were brought along were to die for.
“There will be great sadness in the club upon hearing this news.”
A spokeswoman for Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue said firefighters from Bourne and Market Deeping fire stations were called to the blaze at about 3.10am yesterday.
When they arrived they found the garage and the car well alight and despite battling to save the vintage car, they were unable to prevent the damage.
Falling timber from the five-metre square garage also damaged the car.
No-one was hurt in the incident.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Flyboy
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 08:59 AM"which allegedly carried murderer Ruth Ellis". Allegedly? Look up the word, its derived from allegation, maybe the word possibly or probably would have been more fitting.
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