Fleet of 175 'Little Piddles'

175 Hillman Imps for gas conversion fitters

This is the photo that started that Facebook thread in 2020:

Cover photo on the Isle of Wight County Press supplement 2005, June 24th
Photographer: freelance; maybe she lived in Portsmouth

For Economy Too - Chrysler has the answer
XXL window sticker of Wight Motors

Shown are at least 39 Imps.
Registrations recognisable in this photo:
PDL 82M
PDL 70M
PDL 106M
PDL 100M
PDL 30M
PDL 71M
To check: is British Gas listed as the first owner?

To check: were all PDL M Imps part of the fleet?
Were these?
PDL 40M, orange
PDL 57M
PDL 184M, it's White

Photo taken on a compound in Ryde, perhaps taken on a Southern Gas base near to St Johns - by the railway line near St.Johns station

Isle of Wight, July 1974
Imps aid sea gas teams

The Isle of Wight has just been converted to North Sea Gas - with the help of the Hillman Imp.

Wight Motors, Chrysler main dealers on the Isle of Wight, hired 175 Imps to Southern Gas for use by conversion engineers during the intensive ten-week conversion programme.

A total of 30.000 homes - every home on the island with a gas supply - was converted by a team of gas board engineers.

Every morning the small army of conversion engineers left Ryde in their Imps to convert particular areas of the island - returning each evening to leave their Imps in a special compound in Ryde.

Mr. Rex Watson Lee, managing director of Wight Motors, said: "We were delighted to be able to hire the Imps to Southern Gas for the duration of their conversion programme. The Imp's combination of economy and versatility make it an ideal vehicle for them. Particularly useful for the conversion engineers is the opening rear windows and fold-down rear seat. This gives the Imp many of the advantages of an estate car.

"The Imp has an overall fuel consumption of 45 m.p.g. and that must have appealed to Southern Gas," added Mr. Watson Lee.

Mr. Watson-Lee got mentioned by Scott Glover in his recollections: Rex Watson Lee - Trucks (including Design, Manufacture, Sales, Marketing and Service)

Hiring advert: Feb. 1974

'Press' did the candidate acquisition for Southern Gas, the company who did the conversion work on the Island from Town Gas to Natural Gas