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1950s Ford Popular Found Buried in the Garden After More Than 50 Years

If you thought it was strange to find a toy your dog buried in the back garden, wait till you hear this: one man found an entire car under his lawn. The strangest thing about this story is that there doesn’t seem to be any record of the car anywhere.
1955-56 Ford Popular 103e found buried in man's garden 7 photos
Photo: SWNS / Alex Cousins
1955-56 Ford Popular 103e found buried in man's garden after more than 50 years1955-56 Ford Popular 103e found buried in man's garden after more than 50 years1955-56 Ford Popular 103e found buried in man's garden after more than 50 years1955-56 Ford Popular 103e found buried in man's garden after more than 50 years1955-56 Ford Popular 103e found buried in man's garden after more than 50 years1955-56 Ford Popular 103e found buried in man's garden after more than 50 years
John Brayshaw, from Heckmondwike, UK, is like the rest of the world, in self-isolation under strict government orders meant to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections. To pass the time, since he’s also been furloughed, he made plans to build a deck in his backyard. He started digging the other day, only to have to stop after uncovering a complete car buried right under the lawn.

According to the BBC, the only thing missing on the vehicle, identified by the dashboard as a 1955-1956 Ford Popular 103e, are the wheels. It has the engine and even the license plate, so Brayshaw used these clues to try and find out how it ended up in his yard.

Strangely, he came up empty-handed: there is simply no trace of the vehicle wherever he looked. He also spoke to the son of the couple who had owned the house before he did, and he said they never knew anything about the car, having lived there for five decades. This means that the Ford Popular has been there for more than 50 years.

Brayshaw believes it could have belonged to someone working in the Secret Service, which would explain why it was never registered and why there is no official record of it.

“I’ve been told that at the end of world war two there was an influx of people [living in the neighborhood] that used to work for the Secret Service,” he tells SWNS. “It has also been suggested to me that the color of the car is known as ‘RAF gray.’”

Brayshaw is now weighing his options: either leave the car there and build his deck around it, or have heavy machinery take it out, in the hope he could find someone who would know what to do with it. As the photos attached in the gallery confirm, it’s in very bad shape, so restoring it would be a massive and very costly undertaking.

The Ford Pop, as it was affectionately known, was built in the UK between 1953 and 1962 and, upon launch, was the cheapest new car available.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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