We've all heard the one about a stranger who thought Newport Pagnell was a service station on the M1 – but there’s a great deal more to it than that.
Besides Bury Field’s thousand year history, Cromwell’s great garrison in the Civil War, the only surviving parchment factory and an iconic cast-iron road bridge, it also possesses Aston Martin, the celebrated sportscar-maker of global renown.
That’s some service station!
The special anniversary edition of Salmons & Sons and Aston Martin, a handbook from local history publisher WordGo, pieces together the town’s remarkable 200-year contribution to the UK transport industry.
Colourful, highly-illustrated and with a 20-page celebration supplement, the updated and fully-revised book charts the early years under the Salmons family when all kinds of carts, carriages and coaches were hand-made by craftsmen, to the years since the 1950s when some of the fastest and most expensive vehicles have been produced for road and racetrack.
“For a town of this size, and given the ups and downs of British transport history, it seems quite astonishing that Newport Pagnell’s association with vehicle
manufacturing goes right back to 1820,” said publisher Richard Meredith.
“There are families in the town where several members have spent their entire working lives in Tickford Street and where skills have been passed down through the generations.”
The celebration book comes out after a remarkable 12 months at the Aston Martin Works when production returned with a series of highly-exclusive, hand-built cars in limited editions and where plans are now in place for a continuation of its incomparable DB5, James Bond’s Goldfinger car.
The year also saw local partnerships stepped up with, for example, Red Bull Racing at Milton Keynes and Cranfield Business School, and a major financial milestone in October when the Works at Tickford End became part of the parent company’s flotation on the London Stock Exchange.
Interviewed for the book, Paul Spires, President of Aston Martin Works, said:” I am so proud to have inherited the last 200 years of vehicle-making on this site and I see no reason why it should not continue for another 200.”
The book is launching Saturday March 9 with a book signing in the century-old Olympia Building at the Aston Martin Works in Tickford Street.
The free event (11-2pm) will feature a display of historic Aston Martin cars and entrance is by ticket only. Apply by emailing: np200astonmartin@gmail.com
Salmons & Sons and Aston Martin - town’s 200 year contribution to the UK transport industry is published by WordGo at Newport Pagnell, priced at £10.
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