By John Procter
Book the date in your diary and the times – Farsley’s popular annual Aston Martin Day is returning on Saturday, 14 September 2024.
Do you know anyone who has an Aston Martin? They are welcome to come along on the day.
Farsley Business Forum and The Aston Martin Owners Club will be joining together on Saturday, 14 September as part of the Heritage Weekend.
The cars will start assemble at Farsley Celtic Football Club’s car park at 9.30am.
The cars will leave at about 10.20am and drive up Newlands turning left on to New Street and then right on to Frances Street. They will be leaving here at 10.30 before driving down Town Street and turning in to Weavers Yard at Sunny Bank Mills.
Cars will be staying here for about an hour and people visiting will be asked to vote for their favourite car.
History
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 the James Bond film Goldfinger.
Further reading
Read more on the history behind the Aston Martin plinth in WLD‘ s Mark’s History column here.
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