Uncovering T-T History: A 1991 Story Resurfaces

Since our founding in 1959, T-T has been featured in many newspapers and magazines with local, national and international reach, showcasing press releases, editorials and special occasions such as the business's 60th birthday or the completion of our £600,000 workshop expansion in 2021.

Earlier this year a different kind of article resurfaced from T-T history, a local news story that dates all the way back to May 1991 when the team was still headquartered in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.

When he came across his father’s camera after 25 years in storage, one Howard Cope had the 35mm film developed and posted them in a local Facebook group to ask for any information people might have had about the date of the images or the incident they depict. As part of the Facebook group, T-T Controls Manager Jane Delicata saw the post and immediately recognised the site in the photos as the car park at T-T's first HQ on Lingard Street.

Through some digging, it was discovered that Howard’s father, Bernard Cope, lived on Lingard Street at the same time that T-T was based there and was also home the day of a non-fatal crash at the site. On the day in question, a driver lost control of their car while making their way down the steep street and crashed through T-T's car park barrier, landing on top of four parked cars and writing one off completely. Living only a few doors away from the scene of the crash, Bernard heard the commotion, grabbed his camera and snapped some photos of the chaos.

All of this is corroborated by a report found in the Stoke Sentinel (see below), published Friday 31st May 1991, titled Runaway car plunges onto parked vehicles. The news story includes a quote from past T-T team member Jim Ellis, who was unlucky enough to have recently purchased a brand-new car only for it to suffer extensive damages.

With over 65 years of history under our belt, we have an extensive historical record of T-T media activity and news stories that have been published over the years. Having been lost to time for over three decades, this story has now been added to the T-T archives.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to Howard for sharing his father’s images with us and for helping us to uncover this piece of T-T history - have a scroll through them below!