The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
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Matilda Ford T
Matilda sets the standard for the mass produced car
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Overview
TV reporter Clive Gunnell takes a ride in Mrs Hawkins' 1913 Ford model T car, at the time one of 145 in the country but the only one to be owned by a woman. An enthusiastic Gunnell is a ready passenger as they take to the lanes of Devon and relive the glory days of the first mass produced motorcar.
Matilda does 20 miles to the gallon with a top speed of 40 to 45 miles an hour. The car is started with a starting crank wound around at speed to set the piston of the internal combustion engine into rotation. The Ford Model T is referred to as Tin Lizzie or T and was produced from 1908 to 1927. 1908 is the year cars became available to the mass market. Henry Ford’s Detroit assembly line produced car with its available interchangeable parts found a ready market with the middle classes whose disposable income was spent readily on the model making it an instant success.
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