A COUPLE who spent their working lives transporting the cars of the rich and famous around the continent have celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary with a drive-past from members of the Teesside Yesteryear Motor Club, which is itself celebrating its 60th anniversary.
The members paid tribute to Geoff and Sheila Mansfield, who now live at the Middleton Hall Retirement Village in Middleton St George, near Darlington, after a lifetime working with vintage vehicles.
Members of the Teesside Yesteryear Motor Club present long-serving members Sheila and Geoff Mansfield with a bouquet of flowers (Image: Rachel Smith)
And it began by accident.
“It just grew from something I was doing as a hobby,” said Geoff. “People started asking me to restore cars for them and eventually it became the business.”
They established the Northern TR Centre in Sedgefield, with Sheila running the business while Geoff concentrated on restoration work.
They imported cars from California, restored them and converted them to right-hand drive for customers in the UK and Europe, as well as undertaking bespoke projects.
Geoff and Sheila Mansfield's vehicles head off in the late 1980s (Image: Rachel Smith)
After selling the business, which eventually closed in 1999, they intended to retire, but their connections in the motoring world led to a new business, G&S Classic Services, which transported classic and specialist vehicles in enclosed trucks.
G&S Classic Services was named after Geoff and Sheila, although as Geoff was a pianist with the Bishop Auckland Gilbert & Sullivan Society for many years, there was a musical link as well.
Jaguar Heritage became an important customer, with the couple regularly transporting vehicles for its museum collection.
They also transported cars for people like David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard, with the combined value of vehicles on their trucks sometimes reaching £5m.
A fully loaded G&S Classic Services truck heading out on a delivery in the late 1990s (Image: Rachel Smith)
One particularly prestigious assignment involved transporting Jaguar cars to Italy for the 1000 Miglia, the legendary historic car event.
The couple also regularly collected a car from Genoa for a client who had shipped it from Beverly Hills so he could take part in the European driving season.
Sheila was very much part of the business, including behind the wheel.
“I loved driving the trucks,” she said. “I had to take a special test and I scored 100 per cent on the theory element. Geoff learned a lot testing me before I took it!
“There was often astonishment when I got out of the driver’s side of the truck.”
Sheila and Geoff Mansfield at Middleton Hall (Image: Rachel Smith)
The couple finally retired in 2015, but are still members of the Yesteryear Motor Club, founded in 1966, which they joined nearly 50 years ago.
The club arranged its drive-past a couple of weeks ago, just after Geoff and Sheila received a card from King Charles and Queen Camilla congratulating them on their anniversary.
“We’ve got a lot of happy memories of going to club meetings and taking part in the events,” said Sheila. “We’ve met so many people through the club over the years.”
Some of Geoff's collection of classic and vintage cars in the grounds of their former home (Image: Rachel Smith)
At one point, Geoff owned 11 vintage and classic vehicles, including a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, two Bentleys and a Swallow Doretti.
Geoff Mansfield's classic Jaguar Mark V in front of Bowes Museum (Image: Rachel Smith)
He sold his collection when the couple moved into Middleton Hall, where their interest in the vehicles of yesterday remains undimmed – in their apartment, Geoff has an impressive collection of model cars.
Some of Geoff's model cars in the apartment he shares with Sheila in Middleton Hall (Image: Rachel Smith)