Every now and then something turns up that reminds us exactly why we started UK Barn Finds in the first place.
This week, it was this.
A 1951 three-wheel utility trike, built not in a factory, but by hand by Jim Richardson — an estate carpenter at Southwick Hall near Oundle. It’s made up of whatever he could get his hands on at the time: a Raleigh engine, Norton frame and forks, Sturmey-Archer gearbox and an Austin 7 rear axle.
It’s not polished. It’s not refined. But it’s honest — and that’s exactly what we love.
This wasn’t someone’s weekend project or a showpiece build.
It was a working machine.
Used to pull a plough, drag harrows and haul tools around the estate, it effectively became Richardson’s first “tractor”. That tells you everything you need to know about it — this thing earned its keep.
We’ve always had a soft spot for vehicles like this. Not the obvious classics, but the ones with real stories behind them. The ones built out of necessity, not for attention.
Before the auction, we’d heard rumours that people were interested in buying it just to break it.
Mainly for the front forks.
And while we completely understand that — early Norton parts are desirable — it didn’t sit right with us. Once something like this gets broken up, that’s it. The history goes with it.
That alone made us look at it differently.
So we bid.
There’s something about a machine like this that goes beyond the parts it’s made from.
It’s the fact it was built by a named individual.
It’s the fact it had a real job to do.
And it’s the fact it somehow survived, largely intact, all these years later.
You can’t recreate that.
And you definitely shouldn’t break it.
Now it’s with us, the plan is simple — learn as much as we can and tell its story properly.
We’re already digging into who Jim Richardson was and how this thing came to exist, and we’ve got a feeling there’s more to uncover.
We’ll almost certainly be featuring it on our channels too. Whether that’s getting it running, taking a closer look at how it’s built, or just sharing the story behind it, it feels like something people need to see.
This is exactly what UK Barn Finds is about.
Not just finding old vehicles — but saving the stories behind them before they disappear.
If you’ve got something tucked away, whether it’s a vehicle, a machine, or just an interesting bit of history, we’d love to hear from you.
Because as this proves…
sometimes they’re only one auction away from being lost for good.
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