Irene Cranwell, caught doubtless in the full flow of another story.

This lovely extract is from a recording made by Zofia Everett with Irene Cranwell and is from the Essex Record Office Archive.

Irene Cranwell was Chrishall’s village historian for many years and much of the current archive that we have is from her collection. You can read about her life here and one of her articles on ‘Cussel College‘ here.

Many in the village will remember Mrs Cranwell driving about in her little three wheeler Reliant Robin cars.  But before the Reliant Robin was the Messerschmitt – even smaller than the Reliant Robin!

Zofia, of course, can often be found manning the Saffron Walden Archive Access point – an excellent resource for the local historian.

There is a great little article here on the Messerschmitt cars (scroll down under the cars for sale) which describes how, for many years after the war, the German aircraft manufacturer was prohibited from making planes so they turned to other things.  It also describes how, to reverse a Messerschmitt you re-started the engine in the other direction so you had four forward and four backward gears!