‘Esmerelda’ did not jib at highest mountain passes

A skilled mechanic might well boggle at the idea of taking a 1937 car for thousands of miles across Europe, but Miss D Knowles, of Orleigh Court, Buckland Brewer, whose mechanical knowledge is slight, has done just that.

And it was virtually a trouble-free journey although the car climbed considerable heights in the Alps and travelled along roads that, by comparison, made North Devon cart tracks resemble the A1.

Miss Knowles attributes her good fortune to local garage proprietor Mr L C Warmington. He and his staff scoured the county for an Austin 10 touring car and prepared it for the trip.

From door to door, ‘Esmerelda’ travelled 3,058 miles and for five of the six weeks Miss Knowles was on her own. From Bideford Miss Knowles drove to the New Forest to pick up her cousin, who was co-driver. Thereafter the route lay through Dover, across the Channel to Calais and on to Dunkirk, across the border to Brussels, then into Germany and to Aachen, where the camping site is in the middle of the city. The couple travelled on and up the Rhine Valley to Mainz and into the province of Wurtemburg.

There was a 30 mile drive around the mountains on unmetalled roads, with a cliff rising sheer on the one side and on the other a sheer drop. And Esmerelda, of course, is fitted with cable brakes. But it is she who is the heroine of the story.

She may have been jibbed on the quayside because she was tired of being laughed at. Said Miss Knowles, her whole journey was punctuated by hoots and laughter.

Gazette article dated 1 September 1961