Introduced to classic car ownership when as a young couple they ran a Bradford-made Jowett Javelin as their everyday car, Linda and John Trenouth, have come up in the world.

They now enjoy the luxury of an Armstrong Siddeley, a make which a journalist in the 1950s described as “as silent and inscrutable as the Sphinx.”

The couple, from Sutton, own a 1952-registered Whitley, named after the Second World War night-bomber aircraft.

“When we decided we would like another classic, I wanted something with a bonnet so long you need a packed lunch to walk around the front,” said John, former head of television at the Media Museum, in Bradford.

Before the war, the company as Hawker Siddeley, manufactured engines for such iconic aircraft as the Lancaster and Hurricane aircrafts and took their top engineering skills into making motorcars.

John added: ”They said of Armstrong Siddeley they were the poor man’s Rolls Royce. The cars were owned by people such as solicitors and head teachers.

“The bodywork is aluminium and, unlike a lot of other models, you could chose your own colour on purchase.”

Their Whitley will be making its next journey to the Hebden Bridge Classic and Vintage Car Show on August 1 and 2.

It is expected to attract more 500 classic and vintage cars and motorcycles.