Rolls-Royce 20/25

A sound and particularly handsome example, very nicely proportioned, incorporating such features as twin side-mounted spare wheels, external sun visor and wind deflectors, louvred bonnet and scuttle, correct lamps, including PLG40 centre lamp. The car has been in long-term ownership in the USA, and returned to the UK quite recently. Correct, appealingly original, and although shabby in some ways, good quality work done so far includes full rewire in cotton-covered cable, new headlining and new roof covering. Runs well, and just needs some TLC. MoT tested until October 2016.

SALE AGREED

Chassis No. GGA75 Reg No. YVL 638 Price £35,000

Snippets – D’Aunay - Dawnay - Downe & their Landed Estates
Ordered by Richard, the 10th Viscount Downe (a direct descendant of King Louis IV 920/954). At one stage the Dawnay family had 4 magnificent properties within their ownership – Danby Castle (built in 14th Century by the Latimers) - from 1534/43 Danby Castle was home to the widow Lady Catherine Latimer – (nee Parr) she later married King Henry VIII. The Dawnays purchased Danby Castle in 1656 and the estate is still owned & run by the family. The 2nd property of interest is Cowick Hall of York – (dated late 1600s) - which is regarded as the 1st Renaissance “Italian” house of the North of England. The Cowick estate came into the Dawnay family in the 1400s when Thomas Dawnay married the Yorkshire heiress - Elizabeth Newton of Snaith but Cowick Hall was not built until 1660 by the 1st Viscount, the family remained at Cowick Hall until 1869 when the 9th Viscount sold the estate to Henry Shaw, cotton spinner and exporter of fruit & vegetables. The 3rd magnificent property is Beningbrough Hall (built C1716 for John Bourchier III (replacing the earlier house built in 1566 by Vanburgh for Sir Ralph Bourchier). Both the Bourchier & Downe families can claim Royal blood flowing in their veins from both the male & female lines via the Tudors & the Plantagenets as well as early European Royalty. In 1827 the last direct heir to the Bourchier estate died & Beningbrough Hall was inherited by a cousin – the Rev. William Henry Dawnay, 6th Viscount Downe. Beningbrough had been sadly neglected by the following Dawnay heirs & in 1916 Beningbrough became home to the Count & Countess of Chesterfield (the Hall had been purchased as a wedding gift by the Countess’s mother!) By now the Dawnay’s main family home was Wykeham Abbey which was where GGA75 had been delivered to. Here the 10th Viscount housed his extensive art collection of Rembrandt etchings which included – “Head of a Man in a Fur Cap”; “Christ returning from the Temple with His Parents” & “The Star of the Kings”. In 1928 the 10th Viscount had married an American heiress Margaret Christine Bahnsen – daughter of Christian Bahnsen owner of the Gera & New Jersey Worsted Mills, the family having emigrated from Germany in the early 1900s. In 2015 the estate of Richard’s cousin Eve Dawnay came on the market – this was the fascinating West Heslerton Village which had been bought in 1854 by her & Richard’s mutual great-grandfather Rev William Henry Dawnay 7th Viscount from Mark Foulis for £500.00.