The Morris Minor debuted at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, on 20 September 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.3 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972 in three series: the MM (1948 to 1953), the Series II (1952 to 1956) and finally the 1000 series (1956 to 1971). Initially available as a two-door saloon and convertible, the range was expanded to include a four-door saloon in 1950, a wood-framed estate, the Traveller from October 1953 and panel van and pick-up truck variants from May 1953. It was the first British car to sell over one million units and is considered a classic example of automotive design, as well as typifying “Englishness”.

This example is a 1957 Morris 1000 Panel Van. This superb little van is sign written for AJ Sutherland, Fish Monger in Portsoy, Scotland. It comes with lots of service history and invoices.

Sutherland of Portsoy was founded in 1908 and the family still run a very successful business to date. An image was discovered in the archives of Sutherland of grandfather Sutherland sitting in one of the original A J Sutherland vans.

As part of a recent re-marketing and re-branding campaign, the Sutherland family decided to replicate the original image using a classic vehicle with Maurice Sutherland sitting in the driving seat. Due to the quality of the original image, they were unable to use this in their campaign but a family friend owned a classic Morris that he kindly donated for the shoot for them to match the branding. Elaine has kindly sent us the original image to which this campaign was all based around.