Anybody out there remember the dreaded ‘Invalid Carriage’? (full name Acedes invalid car) Thankfully now defunct along with that distasteful word used to describe those unfortunate enough to own one!Three wheeled with or without hand controls, (well handlebars actually) two stroke 147cc and later 500cc engine with one seat and room for a folding wheelchair accessed via a large sliding door. At top speed it had enough power to cut the entire grass housed in a window box.
Available in any colour providing it was blue but if you were really lucky you could get one with a white roof. Built in Thundersley in Essex they were a real Essex bird babe magnet but only if you were trying to pick up Babe the pig from the movie of the same name!
The shell was made of fibreglass and they were built and supplied by the Health Services from 1933 up until 1977 when government came to their senses and scrapped them. By 2003 government agents crushed all they could lay their hands on, I say ‘crushed’ but I do believe all was needed was a pair of Christmas nut crackers and a strong hand.
Anyway for those interested a run down of these and other disabled motoring beasts can be found here HERE
OK, I'm being a bit strong on the little blue beast, it did at least get the less mobile out and about, to work, shop etc but i'm sure those that remember them are thankful we now have Motability supplying disabled adapted vehicles.
Anybody brave enough to tell us their experiences with the Acedes invalid carriage I’d very much like to hear them, click 'comments' below to leave your post.
Anybody brave enough to tell us their experiences with the Acedes invalid carriage I’d very much like to hear them, click 'comments' below to leave your post.
Great article, I seem to remember they were all painted pale blue and had the name Ministry Blue for the Ministry of Health, reason for them all being the same colour was so they could be identified as 'disabled drivers' Smacks of discrimination these days, maybe that was the reason they were done away with.
ReplyDeleteThey had a knickname too, 'mobile roadblocks' Still, I suppose they did get the less mobile out and about.
Mobile Roadblocks LMAO that sounds about right!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if the Goverment scrapped the so called cars because of discrimination, more than likely is was a financial thing. Also the Acedes invalid car was scrapped in 1977, Motability started just a year later in 1978.
Motability now turns over a massive 2.2 BILLION a year and has assets of a mamouth 3.7 BILLION and gues who owns this 'so called charity'?
Barclays Bank plc, Lloyds Group plc, HSBC Bank plc and Royal Bank of Scotland plc!
It's amazing how long this once familiar sight went on for though. Last one I saw on the road must have been very late 90s, possibly early 2000s. This version came out in the 60s though -- just to make your 1933 bit clear.
ReplyDeletethese cars are EVIL! seriously they are going to overthrow humanity
ReplyDeleteDidnt realise the banks owned the motibility thing, ar, but when is camerons crew going to screw it up with the disability scheme... and they certainly will.
ReplyDeleteI have one of these blue monsters. with the 197cc Villers engine. Soon to be re-registered for road use, so i can terrorize everyone else on the road!
ReplyDeleteWhen at school in the early seventies I worked part time in a filling station next to one of the service agents for these. We always thought it funny to put many extra shots of 2 stroke oil in and watch 'em disappear down the road leaving a cloud of blue smoke behind. Nasty now I think about it.
ReplyDeleteA nightmare vechle.. A killer.. my grandad had one and it was nuts...!
ReplyDeleteMany folk appear to lose sight of the fact that these vehicles were specialised designs intended to free the invalid person from the restricted confinement only persued by their non motorised wheelchairs and yes,it did all centre around the governmental financial allocated allowances for the disabled,the amounts granted were insufficient to allow a choice of a conventional motor vehicle to be purchased plus having then be converted to the disabled persons requirements in order to allow them to drive it safely.
ReplyDeleteMost could not afford to put up the remaining amounts to purchase an ordinary motor car so the government created a vehicle that could be adapted from scratch during the construction to suit the many differing requirements (which could be some 56 varieties i believe.
As for the colouring once again this was chosen as one specific pigment so it could be bought in quantity thereby keeping costs to the minimum, they were not painted but the glass fibre construction had the same pigment incorporated within the resin as well as the hardened outer gel coating layer.