Photo: HullLive / MEN
This could be a barn find-type of story, even though the location of the vehicle in question is not a barn but a public multi-level parking lot. But that would mean someone would have to step forward to claim the vehicle, which, as far as Mildred is concerned, no one seems eager to do.
Mildred is a local and internet celebrity, even though no one knows how it ended up there or why. Mildred is a mystery, as befits a lady her age. It’s a 1965 Morris Minor 1000, a classic car still in very good condition underneath the accumulated dust and grime, which has been abandoned inside a parking lot for the past five years, at the very least.
The strangest thing about Mildred is that, even though it’s abandoned and no one seems able to determine the identity of its owner, it has its parking bills up to date. We first reported on Mildred in the summer of 2021, and today, it’s back in the spotlight. Consider this an update, even though it doesn’t bring much novelty with it: the maroon Morris is still parked on the third level of a multi-story car park in Kingston upon Hull in North-Eastern England, and parking is still up to date, the Mirror reports.
Not much has changed about the car’s status, either: its MOT hasn’t been renewed since 2017, it hasn’t been taxed since 2019, and nothing about it shows up on the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) website. It has not been moved and nothing about its condition has changed, but someone is still paying parking for it. Because of this, the report notes, the car is not legally abandoned; just parked indefinitely.
The Mirror notes that Mildred could be part of a modern art installation: a mid-‘60s car parked inside a ‘70s-style parking lot. If that’s the case, then it’s a successful piece of modern art, because it continues to captivate the public even after all this time.
Another possible but unverified theory is that it was stolen and hidden there, which would explain the up-to-date parking fees. According to an older report in HullLive, a local claimed that he had swapped a 2009 Ford Fiesta for Mildred, in a deal with a local farmer. The car had no keys and no paperwork, and wasn’t in running condition, but the man said he was willing to put in the work to put it back on the road. However, when he came to pick it up, he learned that the car, along with many parts that would have been used for the restoration, were stolen from the barn, and were never tracked down.
The Morris Minor was a very popular British economy family car, produced between 1948 and 1971 in more than 1.6 million units, 847,000 of which were for the 1000 series. It was not a high-quality car, but its popularity survived whatever downsides it had during production phase. Mildred is clearly all the more special.
The strangest thing about Mildred is that, even though it’s abandoned and no one seems able to determine the identity of its owner, it has its parking bills up to date. We first reported on Mildred in the summer of 2021, and today, it’s back in the spotlight. Consider this an update, even though it doesn’t bring much novelty with it: the maroon Morris is still parked on the third level of a multi-story car park in Kingston upon Hull in North-Eastern England, and parking is still up to date, the Mirror reports.
Not much has changed about the car’s status, either: its MOT hasn’t been renewed since 2017, it hasn’t been taxed since 2019, and nothing about it shows up on the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) website. It has not been moved and nothing about its condition has changed, but someone is still paying parking for it. Because of this, the report notes, the car is not legally abandoned; just parked indefinitely.
The Mirror notes that Mildred could be part of a modern art installation: a mid-‘60s car parked inside a ‘70s-style parking lot. If that’s the case, then it’s a successful piece of modern art, because it continues to captivate the public even after all this time.
Another possible but unverified theory is that it was stolen and hidden there, which would explain the up-to-date parking fees. According to an older report in HullLive, a local claimed that he had swapped a 2009 Ford Fiesta for Mildred, in a deal with a local farmer. The car had no keys and no paperwork, and wasn’t in running condition, but the man said he was willing to put in the work to put it back on the road. However, when he came to pick it up, he learned that the car, along with many parts that would have been used for the restoration, were stolen from the barn, and were never tracked down.
The Morris Minor was a very popular British economy family car, produced between 1948 and 1971 in more than 1.6 million units, 847,000 of which were for the 1000 series. It was not a high-quality car, but its popularity survived whatever downsides it had during production phase. Mildred is clearly all the more special.
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