Adrian wrote:


Ah - that's nice.....
Never met him in person - but we've spoken several times on the phone,
and he seems like one of those people who knows their stuff on Moggies...

Thanks
Adrian

He is a very interesting man to talk to, though he always seems
incredibly busy and never chats for long at any time.

He was once a millionaire who fought (and won) a running battle with the
council who wanted to demolish a row of Georgian houses that they had
deliberately allowed to go derelict to make them worthless. Charlie
stepped in and bought them from under the council's nose, restored them
and then forced the council to rethink their development plans because
what they intended to demolish was no longer unfit for habitation. He
sold them on and used the money to buy up another set of derelicts and
restored them. Unfortunately at that time there was a property price
crash and he lost most of his money because this latest batch sold for
less than it cost him to restore them.

Having found himself with insufficient cash to restore property he
decided to start restoring something else and settled on Morris Minors.
And as the business grew and became more profitable, he bought another
Georgian terrace, restored that and used it as his business
headquarters. He also started up a factory in Sri Lanka which now makes
his parts for his restoration business.

Before the second World War, there were several garages named Ware's,
most of which got bombed. I don't know if they were his family or not -
I have never asked him - but my guess is that they were, and he grew up
in an environment where cars were repaired. He certainly knows a lot
about classic cars which would have been current cars when he was
growing up.

Jim