Holden Vintage and Classic Ltd was founded on October 1, 1988 in Hartlebury, West Midlands. At that time specializing almost exclusively in Lucas products. We soon produced our first mail order catalog, 40 pages long and typed in a daisy-like editor! In subsequent years, catalogs grew with the advent of many additional product lines.
1994-2002
On 1st July 1994 we moved to Bromyard, Herefordshire. In 2000, a new factory was built, making room for larger stores, a new sales office and a graphics studio to handle increased catalog production (now over 300 pages) and web site development.
2003
We've worked with former Lucas suppliers and tool makers to reintroduce a growing number of control boxes. The photo on the left shows Roy's inspection and assembly of components being carried out at our Bromyard factories. We are constantly increasing the number of ignition components, the latest being a standard Lucas 12v coil, but filled with modern resin with better performance.
2004
Clients and colleagues departed for Le Mans 24...in fact, it was 24 hours of riding on mopeds and raised over £8,000 for the McMillan Nurses' Appeal. The fun was so great that many of us still use (some prefer) mopeds for 'tours', the last trip being for the North West 200 Road Race in Northern Ireland. It turns out that just over 20% of our customers are interested in motorcycles, almost the same proportion here at Holdens.
2005
Holden's friends and customers celebrate '100 years of the Midland Automobile Club in Shelsley' - as the Auto Union and V16 BRM require replacement parts, unfortunately not stock items, but Colin has already found one!
For Shelsley Walsh, see www.shelsley-walsh.co.uk
2006
Julian, who joined the company 14 years ago, became Managing Director when Jeremy became fully involved in the aluminum stuff. Julian's extra responsibility will no doubt prolong the rebuilding of the MGA Coupe begun in the third quarter of the last century. Another restoration started a few years ago is now the V8 Caterham works, or Caterham if you will, a project that will no doubt be waiting to be completed when this young man (Will) finishes school… or university!
2007
Jeremy's involvement with sister company Holden Aluminum Technologies led to the purchase of Hydro Worcester, maker of Lotus and Aston Martin chassis. A proud moment when the Holden-sponsored DBR9 won the Le Mans 24hr GT1 class. The image shows David Richards, president of Aston Martin and Jeremy Holden exulting during the after-race celebrations. The aluminum company later became part of the Lotus Group.
2008
Belstaff knows Bromyard or Hollywood! In expanding the range of period style clothing, Holden's was pleased to accept the appointment as a Classic Distributor for the Pure Motorcycle Collection. Used by the likes of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman and appearing in numerous films and documentaries, including Long Way Down and Wild Hogs and, most recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt.
2009
We celebrated our 21st anniversary as a company in October 2009 - thanks to everyone here and customers out there. Most of the team seen in this photo have worked together for years, Chris and Colin suffering more than most from having endured 21 full years! We'd love to hear from any customer who still has an original catalog, the one with an MGA on the cover.