What links the IMI, Fanshaws and the landspeed record?

The IMI has faced a huge variety of challenges throughout its history, none bigger than shortly after celebrating its 40th anniversary and facing losing its headquarters. London County Council pulled the plug on its then home, 40 Queen’s Gate, refusing to give permission for further use.

Cue a frantic search for a new home and what turned out to be an almost serendipitous turn of events that meant that the IMI has an incredibly personal link to the landspeed record holder and pioneer Richard Noble.

In the 1960’s the IMI’s hunt for a new home found that London was either too expensive or the options not fit for purpose, so the net was widened and properties outside of the capital were considered. In 1962 a gem was spied, advertised in The Times newspaper: “Spacious country residence of great charm and immaculate order. Extensive landscaped gardens, stabling etc; situated in beautiful wooded surroundings known as Fanshaws, Brickendon, Hertford.”

Not long after the institute paid £20,000 for the property, six acres of land and three freehold cottages, and it’s been home ever since. But it’s the building’s former owner that links the IMI to Noble.

“My family comes from, Northumbria and one of my ancestors was a guy called Edwin McIntosh, and he decided to develop his future in Hong Kong so signed up with a company called Butterfield and Swire,” says Noble as he visited Fanshaws, the first time he’d been to his family’s former home.

“They became a very successful shipping, marketing, manufacturing company in China and in Hong Kong, dealing with Southeast Asia on a huge scale.

“He left Hong Kong in 1890 and became a partner of John Swire & Co., the holding company, and that's when he came here [to Fanshaws]. He came here probably around 1890 and he died in 1904, and is buried in nearby Hertingfordbury. He had three children. All born in the 1880s and my granny, was the youngest daughter of Edwin McIntosh.”

It’s a link that was undiscovered for decades but highlights the intricate connections in the automotive sector, where associations can appear where you least expect them. And Richard Noble is a man with an incredible story, that has powered the dreams of many who’ve since entered the sector and forged incredible careers.

Noble is the former landspeed world record holder, having taken Thrust II transonic in the Utah deserts back in 1983 (a story you can hear in his own words in Noble’s Drive of My Life story), continued to push boundaries, including the development of the Bloodhound SSC project.

And while it may not have achieved its goals, it did succeed in getting a new generation excited about what automotive can offer.

“We had a very powerful education team. This was amazing because we made a big breakthrough and we realised that these projects are incredibly powerful for education. We were running with 127,000 kids a year. It was really big,” says Noble.

Noble’s passion for record-breaking hasn’t dimmed and he’s now turning his attention to the water speed record, because as those closest to him will attest, you only have to mention speed records and Noble’s ears prick up. But now his adventures have a bond with the home of the IMI at Fanshaws.