A milk float had been parked across our front, which was in the way of our exit.
Harry needed to go out, but some while later, he came back into the office fuming. In fact I remember one occasion, not long after we had bought our Jensens. Our premises at Stratford had a fairly narrow parking area down one side of the factory, and that’s where Harry and myself parked our cars. “After the salesman, Nigel Bligh, had talked us through the instrumentation, off we went in our new Jensens, back through the centre of London over to the east end. Some months later the call came through that their cars were ready for collection. Ron Clover ended up choosing a primrose yellow Interceptor, and Harry Brown a tangerine Interceptor. Both Clover and Brown had decided to buy Interceptors, so after making an appointment with London’s main Jensen distributors boss, Pat Follett, off they went down to the Charles Follett showrooms in Mayfair. In early 1968 it was time for a car change.
The car epitomised a look and a life style, and both Clover and Brown could afford both. As to Brown, well, the new Jensen ticked all the boxes. That space-ship shape certainly put the new Jensen on his ‘hit’ list. His flamboyant partner, Harry Brown, was also changing Jaguars on a regular basis, and was currently enjoying the Jaguar E-Type.Ĭlover had been taken by the new Jensen Interceptor, after seeing it unveiled at the Motor Show in 1966.
#VNTS CLOVER DAYS SERIES#
Clover was getting through a series of Jaguar MK.Xs on a regular basis, later changing to a Jaguar ‘S’ Type. Two at a time.Ĭlover and Brown would pop along to Henleys at Finchley, and buy their cars together. This would translate into nice houses, and prestige cars. So for Ron Clover, and Harry Brown, serious money was coming in by the middle 1960s. Due to possibilities of expansion, and also excessive pressure, large compensators had to be installed, along with other cutting edge pipework technology. It was a particularly complicated job, requiring the feeding of long lengths of pipework into very small tunnels. Work being undertaken at London (Heathrow) Airport during 1969-1970 One of Bristow’s top pilots made sure there wasn’t any messy mistake with dropping the tank into position. The oil tank was taken up under one of Bristow’s helicopters, and carefully deposited on a secondary roof between two higher roof levels. The tank, weighing in at well over a ton was going to be used for storing oil for the malting kilns (also manufactured by Clover Brown). In fact no sooner as the Building Division had been set up, they won a lucrative contract with the Greater London Council, undertaking building work on the then new Thurrock Estate.Īlways ready to think outside the box, Clover Brown became the first company to have one of their especially manufactured tanks airlifted by helicopter onto the roofs of the Green King brewery in Bury St.Edmunds. Riding high, Clover Brown started to break into other sectors, including the setting up of a Fire Protection Division, and a Building Division. By 1970, the Company was turning over in excess of £1000,000 annually. Such names included, Mars, British Sugar Corporation, Smedleys, and Birds Eye. Ron Clover (standing), and Harry Brown, 1960s.Ī large variety of contracts came into Clover Brown, with many household names using the engineering company for routine maintenance, through to the installing of completely new production lines. By 1963 they opened a new branch in Kings Lynn. It quickly took off, and within the first year they were employing fifty people, and by the second year, a hundred people. Later he was given the opportunity to re-organise the company, and during his time undertaking the company re-organisation, Clover had met Harry Brown, who was employed as a site erection foreman with the same company.Īgreeing to start a company specialising in pipework and general engineering, they both left their employment, and started their business in 1961, with a factory in Romford, then Stratford in east London. Ron Clover had been a senior draughtsman with a pipework fabrication and installation company. The company specialised in the manufacture of pipework. With a wry smile, Clover jokes that he doesn’t know if this feature is Recollections of a Jensen owner, or Confessions of a Jensen owner.īy the mid-1960s, Clover Brown Engineering was at the top of its game. Ron Clover tells the Museum about his Jensen days in 1960s / 1970s London. London, in the 1960s, was an exciting place to be, and could be quite wild. In fact both partners bought Interceptors and FFs. It was the time both Clover, and his partner, Brown, flirted with the new Italian-bodied Jensen. Brought up in London’s East End, by the 1960s, Ron Clover, was a partner in a successful engineering business.
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