A festival to celebrate Farsley’s connection with the famous Aston Martin brand is set to draw the crowds this weekend.
The event take place on Saturday, 18 September 2021, with a procession of vehicles winding its way through the village from Farsley Celtic’s ground.
Farsley’s connections with Aston Martin date back many years.
Although the main manufacturing plant of James Bond 007’s car of choice was in Huddersfield, they also had a factory at Newlands Works in Farsley. By 1950 Newlands was the main producer for tractor engines and the power unit for the new Aston DB2.
Although some of the business had started to move by the mid 50s, rolling chassis were still produced at Newlands and test driven in Farsley.
Provided the cars could reach 90 mph in third up the hill towards Rodley they were signed off. The company left the site in 1957 after deciding not to renew their lease.
A 5.5 tonne memorial was unveiled at Newlands in 2015 to mark the Aston Martin link with the village. The memorial plaque was unveiled by five former apprentices from The David Brown Aston Martin site in Newlands who helped build the DB2/4. The cars featured in James Bond film Goldfinger.
Where will the cars assemble?
Farsley Celtic car park from around 9.15am
Where do they go next?
The cars will start to drive on to Newlands at about 10.20am and halt at New Street. At 10.25 the cars will be directed on to Frances Street.
At 10.30am the cars will leave Frances Street and drive down Town Street.
Where do they go after that?
The Aston Martins, from the Aston Martin Owners Club, will drive in to Sunny Bank Mills and up in to Weavers Yard. You will be asked to vote for the “people’s choice of favourite Aston” and place this in to a voting box.
What can I win?
The winning car will be presented with a special cake kindly designed and donated by The Candied Peel Cake Company in Farsley.
Further reading
Read more on the history behind the Aston Martin plinth in WLD‘ s Mark’s History column here.
West Leeds Dispatch