Do you watch Norwegian Television? We do...

A sort of Top Gear/5th Gear motoring series featuring old and new, race cars, custom vehicles.
Well, Kare Jorgen had his early Morris J type hospital transport van featured this week. One of 6 van delivered to this Norwegian island. Its now the only one left and now the island is connected by a bridge and causeway to save the hours ferry crossing. If you want to watch the whole programme click on this link.https://www.tv3play.no/programmer/garasjen/579275?autostart=true
There does not seem to be a way of skipping the adverts!!!!! 

A brief advert on e-bay.

For only a few hours, an advert for a Morris mini-bus appeared.
With a starting bid of only £450 but no sooner was it there the advert had gone, seems somebody made them an offer they could not refuse.

 Here it is a few years ago, sort of an ice cream van made into a 4 seater bus, slightly strange or what?
On another theme, we have made contact with a J van owner in Mexico City who's van used to be a local Butchers van.
The owner is slowly restoring it but a garage that was doing the body work has lost some of the parts including headlights and brackets, so if you think its hard getting J van bits, spare a thought for this guy.

Advertising material.

Some people like to collect advertising material on the good old J 10 cwt van, only much later was it called the "J type" maybe after the fact the chassis number starts with the letter J. There is plenty of J related items around but some are rarer than others.
For example there is one for sale on good old Flea-bay at the moment, well over priced, true its one of the first but not the rarest.
Also watch out, some are undated and some have at least two versions, if it has a number on it prefixed with the letter H, its for HOME issue and if it is prefixed with E, its for export use.
You can also collect Morris Commercial newspaper adverts or maybe adverts from body builders.
Here are a few of the many examples to collect.

Currently for sale on ebay USA at £19 is the above export booklet. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351305918881?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26ghostText%3D%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D351305918881%26_rdc%3D1

Background information from the world of films.

I bought the van because I just liked it around 1979-1980 for £500. Don't recall what first inspired me. Can't remember where it was advertised in those days. Exchange and Mart probably. Can't imagine where else. I do remember meeting the seller to collect it near Sloane Square. It was a red JB from about 1958 I think and I repainted it with a brush! 

I used it as my everyday transport. 

The 2 Reel Co was the name of  my theatre double-act where my mate and I were an old 20s style silent film company. The image on the side is gold painted paper! No expense spared! We had a comedy theatre show we toured, but not in the van. We should have had a pre war van but I had this one. 

We built a platform out of dexion and plywood ( our pretend "studios" we're Plywood Studios!) to copy the news reel companies and we filmed a silly gag on Wimbledon Common. 

The driver while we were on top was a chap called Dave Watson who I seem to remember being into J types. Name mean anything to anyone? I'll try and find all the pics I've got too.

I eventually sold it to my colleague (fool that I was) and he eventually sold it on, but retained the registration number 9415 TW ( A November 1959 registration from Essex) for his Porsche! (its now on a Merc E250 sports coupe). I believe it did end up on the Isle of Wight, where it was painted green and cream. 

I drove it to Penzance in 1980 for a festival with my wife to be and it was great. Much easier and more relaxing than my present one. But I was younger then. 

When my current one appeared on eBay I circumvented the auction by going straight to the seller, in Old Hunstanton near King's Lynn, and paying the asking price. 
Many thanks P.W. for the pictures and the story.
P.W. is still in show business, his current J van was to be seen on BBC Tv last night.

period pictures from around the world.

A flash of a J van.

You have to be quick, Call the Midwife on BBC1 last night, on screen for less than a second, one J van. Lets hope for more views of the van in the next episode.