Cornwall to Kerry, an illustrated memoir published in 2021 by John Mitchell of the Kilgarvan Motor Museum, has been added to the archive of Castleisland District Heritage. The book is a journey through John’s life from his birth at Beardon Farm, Devon in 1945 and early life in Cornwall to his family’s move to Wicklow in 1953. A family holiday in Kerry in the 1960s led the family there where John has remained ever since.
John left school at age fourteen and worked on his father’s farm with his brothers. He enjoyed mechanics and in the 1960s, opened a small garage in Kilgarvan for a rent of £3 a week:
My brother did mostly tractors, I did cars and motorbikes, repairs, also buying and selling. I started selling new Honda 50s I got from another dealer, I was getting so busy I needed a larger place so in 1968, I rented a small garage in the village from the Twomeys … it had been empty for about 35 years … they said I could have it if I cleaned it out.
In 1972 John built another garage in the village. He recalls one of the visitors there was a young lad named Michael Healy-Rae who used to call in for a chat. He used to say, ‘You are making a fortune here, someday I will buy this garage.’
John bought his first vintage car in the early 1970s and helped to form the Kingdom Veteran Vintage Classic Car Club in 1979. He travelled all over the country collecting cars and tractors. ‘Back then,’ he recalls, ‘people could do all sorts of repairs themselves like tying a piece of string on the carburettor and bringing it through a window.’
He recalls the purchase of a Riley:
In about 1975 we heard of a Riley that had been off the road for years. We went to see it and found the owner had a second one also so we ended up buying both of them. When we got them home I picked the best, most original one and started work on it. The body was good, just needed a re-spray. The leather seats were perfect, just a matter of cleaning them up … The engine was completely seized but came with a box of new engine parts; I hardly had to buy anything. After a few months we had it running. We went all over the country with it, doing vintage rallies and it never missed a beat … That’s how the museum worked, it almost financed itself.
John sold the garage in 1980 (not to Michael but it was indeed later purchased by him) and concentrated on restoration and his vintage and classic car motor museum.
John met his wife Joan, who worked at Lady’s View shop, at the Silver Slipper ballroom in Kenmare in 1970 and they married in Kenmare in 1971 and had a family. He retired in 2019 at age 72 but is still very much involved with the museum.
Cornwall to Kerry will be enjoyed by car enthusiasts as it is packed with tales and anecdote of all things mechanical, and may also be regarded as a social history of Cornwall and Kerry.
John Mitchell releases a second title
Castleisland District Heritage has added John Mitchell’s second illustrated memoir to its archive, the aptly titled A Life of Cars, Farms, and Family, just published, a rich volume of stories, anecdote and memories of a colourful, energetic life.
In this volume John, who is ‘almost 80,’ tells us about his parents, his father, who lived at Ellowes Hall, Sedgley, Staffs (now Ellowes Hall Sports College) being one of ten children, and his mother of a Wolverhampton business family who supplied goods to the pottery trade.
His parents, who met at Queen’s University, married in 1928 when his father was aged twenty-two and his mother seventeen. They bought a garage, and then a farm (Sizewell Farm) in Suffolk, until World War II caused them to move to Devon where John’s paternal grandmother then lived. His parents bought Beardon Farm, Devon, where John was born in 1945, before moving again to Churchtown Farm, Cornwall in 1947. The Mitchell family moved frequently until their arrival in Ireland in 1953, John attending school in Wicklow until the family moved to Kerry a decade later where they settled.
John’s book is a gem in terms of local history, as he recalls personalities, businesses and venues like the blacksmith Harrington, Frank Noonan’s garage, Joe Maybury’s hardware store, Roddie Donohue’s and the Silver Slipper Ballroom, Kenmare where John met his future wife Joan in 1970. He also includes photographs, bringing back memories of places like the old cinema and forge in Kenmare in the 1960s.
There is of course much discussion about cars, comparing the then and now, car restorations, and motor bikes. In 1968, John started his first garage in Kilgarvan, extending it soon after. His passion for collecting vintage cars led ultimately to the Kilgarvan Motor Museum which opened in 1984, and remains open to the public.
