Marking west Leeds village’s links to Aston Martin

DOZENS of Aston Martins are expected to roll into West Leeds on Saturday for an event to celebrate a village’s links to the iconic sports cars.

A stone plinth will be unveiled at Westroyd Park in Farsley on the site where the old Aston Martin Newlands Works factory stood.

Newlands Works, which was first used to manufacture tractors, was where the Aston Martin DB2/4 was built from 1953 and from 1953 to 1957 it was a main production hub for Aston Martin’s LB6 engine.

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The factory was owned by Huddersfield-born David Brown. The iconic Aston Martin ‘DB’ series – immortalised when a DB5 featured in 1964 James Bond film ‘Goldfinger – take their name from Brown’s initials.

At 11am on Saturday, (Sept 5) David Brown’s grandson Adam Brown will unveil a stone plinth in Westroyd Park off Parkside Road to mark the site where the original DB2/4 MKII and MKIII models were built.

More than 50 Aston Martin owners are expected to travel from across the UK to Farsley to be at the event.

Their cars will form a parade along Town Street to an exhibition area at Sunnybank Mills on Town Street.

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Event organiser, Coun Rod Wood (Cons/Calverley and Farsley), said: “I would have thought every Aston Martin will be represented at the event, from the DB2 onwards. Aston Martin are sending up the new Aston Martin Rapide F.”

And there will be a wide-range of activities at Sunnybank Mills from 10am to 4pm on Saturday.

Visitors can call into the Sunny Bank Mills Gallery to see a selling exhibition of work submitted to celebrate the tractors and fast cars of the 1950s. And there will two attempts to create new world records with visitors invited to help create the tthe world’s longest painted carrot and and print thousands of images of honey bees.