BRAMBLE

Bramble, an 88-inch short wheelbase model, was first registered in January 1965. It is thought that her early life was spent in the military and she still retains her military-spec non-chromed headlights, plus an auxiliary fuel tank under the passenger seat with a changeover switch under the dash. At some point, her brakes have been changed to the larger 11inch drums from the109-inch long-wheelbase model, which was an upgrade often carried out by Army mechanics.

Following her military service, Bramble has moved between private owners on the south coast and in April 2017, she branched out into a new automotive phenomenon when she became the founding member of the Goodwood Classic Land Rover fleet.

BRACKEN

The second Land Rover to join the fleet was named ‘Bracken’ because of her military past, the visual signs for which are much more evident than on her comrade ‘Bramble’. She left the factory in August 1966 and was immediately drafted into the Army.

Following her demob, little is known of Bracken’s civilian life until she passed into the hands of an avid Wiltshire-based Land Rover restorer in the early 2000s. He rebuilt Bracken on a new galvanised chassis and made sure she bristles with military detail – vertically aligned front sidelights/ indicators, headlamps with metal outer bezels, a six-way light switch that controls front and rear lights separately for various ‘convoy’ settings, a metal blackout on the rear number plate light, twin fuel tanks with changeover switch, plus the distinctive yellow ‘bridge plate’, which was used to record the maximum weight capacities for the vehicle and any trailer. 

BILBERRY

Unlike most of her brethren on the Goodwood fleet, Bilberry is not a Series 2A model but the less common Series 2, of which only 107,000 were produced between 1958 and 1961. Bilberry is one of the later examples built in 1961, the final year of Series 2 production. Visually and mechanically, the Series 2 is almost identical to its later derivative, with the most obvious differences being bolted hinges on the front air vents beneath the windscreen rather than welded ones, and a flat front apron instead of the later rounded one. Bilberry came to Goodwood after many years in Surrey with an off-roading enthusiast. 

BURDOCK

First registered in 1962, Burdock is an early Series 2A from the first year of 2A production. Like all her brethren at Goodwood, she is powered by a rugged 2.25-litre petrol engine that traces its lineage back to pre-war Rover cars. Burdock has always been a working farm vehicle, having spent most of her agricultural career among the gently rolling borderlands between England and Wales, in Shropshire and Monmouthshire. In 2017 she was discovered at rest in a somewhat tatty state in a barn near Welshpool by an enthusiastic Land Rover restoration specialist. Having been rescued from this rather undignified retirement, she has Subsequently enjoyed a full respray in her original colour, Land Rover Bronze Green, plus a new canvas hood in Sand.

BOGBERRY

First registered in 1967, Bogberry left the Solihull factory fitted with an enclosed cab and the redoubtable 2.25-litre diesel engine. Like so many Land Rovers, she made her living on the land, working on farms in the Peak District in Derbyshire. In 2005 she followed the Pennines a few miles north when she relocated from picturesque Bakewell to a smallholding near the equally beautiful Yorkshire town of Holmfirth, which is famous as the filming location for the long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine.

She was treated to a new galvanised chassis and enjoyed an idyllic semi-retirement helping the smallholder’s daughter tend to her horses. In April 2018, her tired diesel engine was replaced by a quieter and more powerful petrol one, her functional closed cab was replaced by a leisure-friendly full canvas hood and she enjoyed a full respray in her original Bronze Green – all in readiness for a new life in the gently rolling Downs of the sunny south.

BRIAR

Like her sister Bilberry, Briar is not a Series 2A model but the less common and short-lived Series 2. Although the Series 2 differed little from the later 2A, it represented a far more significant diversion from the original Series 1, which it replaced in 1958. The Series 2 was the first Land Rover to receive the attentions of the Rover styling department, introducing iconic features such as the ‘barrel sides’ to accommodate its wider track, plus the curved vertical rear quarter windows (on hardtop models) and distinctive angular but round-edged roof profile that remained a hallmark until production ended in 2015. Mechanically, the major change was a shift from the asthmatic 2-litre engines to the far superior 2.25-litre units.

Briar dates from the last year of Series 2 production in 1961 – she was exactly 2,400 cars and around six weeks behind Bilberry on the production line, leaving the factory in late February but beating her sister onto the road, being first registered in April compared to Bilberry’s May.