1956 Bentley S1 Sports Saloon
A very smart, sharp, correct and attractive example, in good, sound order looking very handsome in its original colour scheme of Smoke green and Sage green. The car is painted to a high standard, with lovely chrome plating, superb veneers, excellent carpets and headlining and original green leather interior. Fitted with three point seat belts to the front and lap belts to the rear, and the car has an impressive set of tools, large and small, all correctly located. Well cared-for, as evidenced by three folders of paperwork, including many invoices for maintenance and repairs, some of them going back to the 1970s, as well as some recent, substantial ones. We also have a more or less complete run of MoT certificates going back to 1972, a handbook, which includes instructions for the original HMV radio, within which is the never used guarantee card, requiring a penny halfpenny stamp for postage! Even the original, delicate delivery sheet from Bentley Motors to Rippon Bros (the supplying dealer), is with the car. A lovely, wholesome car, driving nicely and offered newly MoT tested.
Chassis No. B489AP.
Reg No. KVH 496.
Price. £29,500.
Snippets: A Sapper & Buddy Holly’s Manager
The first owner of the S1 was Major Kenneth C. Lee (Royal Engineers), in 1956 he was awarded a 3rd Clasp of the T.E.D. by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II this was in addition to the 2nd Clasp which her father had awarded Kenneth Lee in 1950. The Lee family were based in Sheffield where in the 1860s Kenneth’s grand-father Arthur Lee, after returning from the American Civil War, started the family steel business. The company supplied wire for a variety of products for hooped shirts, bicycle wheel spokes & of course steel for WWI. After serving with the “Sappers” it would appear that Major Lee didn’t join the family firm but became a respected breeder & exhibitor of Jersey cattle which he gave delightful names to such as “Arabula’s Kahoka’s Surprise, Dreaming Beau’s Bell, Lound Tree Lord’s Delight, Lound Tree Oxford Butterfly & Hursley Helitrope! Sadly the Major was killed in a road crash in 1964 leaving an estate in excess of £500,000.
The Major had only kept B489AP for a few years before he sold the Bentley to the fabric firm of Donald Shearer & Co Ltd of Manchester. The unusual connection to Buddy Holly is that in 1958 Holly was touring the UK with his manager (& co-writer of Peggy Sue) Norman Petty who himself was a connoisseur of “class”. During the tour Norman ordered a new Austin Healey deluxe coupe & some cloth from the woollen Mills of Donald Shearer & Co (owner of B489AP). In order to save import tax to the USA Norman Petty requested that the bolts of wool be sent to his home in Clovis, USA in 5 duty-saving “unsolicited gift parcels” with the names of the band members – Buddy, J.I., Joe B, Vi and himself on the packets!