We were recently contacted by Colleen Combs who’s husband collects classic cars,they have recently acquired a 1962 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, when looking at the original history book that came with the car, they found that it was originaly owned by Mr Ditchburn, they contacted us and sent us some fantastic photos and history of this beautiful car, the car currently resides in Florida USA and has been wonderfully restored to its original specification.

Norman Ditchburn’s full name is Geoffrey Norman Ditchburn , he was born in 1908, his inception into business began in 1925, at the young age of 17 he started his training as a salesman with Rowe Brothers and Co Ltd in Liverpool, one of the largest builders and plumbers merchants in the UK, in a comparatively short space of time Norman rose to sales manager and further rapid promotions followed, subsequently he became one of four managing directors at Rowe Bros. During the second world war Rowe Bros. were engaged in manufacturing munitions for the war effort, it was during this time that Norman Ditchburn became director of 10 subsidiary companies belonging to Rowe Bros. and also chairman of three of them. After the war in 1947 he decided to leave Rowe Bros. He left with a handsome pay-off of approximately £10,000 (equivalent to £380,000 in today’s money) with this money burning a hole in Normans pocket he decided to set up his own business, unfortunately due to a covenant with his pay off, he was not allowed ( for at least 3 years ) to manufacture similar products that were currently being manufactured by Rowe Bros. So Norman had to look into other business ventures, and that is when he met Frank and Percy Hawtin and the Music Maker Jukebox

The People of Ditchburn of Lytham St Anne’s

1. Geoffrey “Norman” Ditchburn