FORMER soldier Richard Growden was this week celebrating after winning a licence to use his 83-year-old car named ‘Harold’ for private hire tours of Exmoor.

Mr Growden, from Porlock, will take visitors on road tours of the moor in his 1939 Morris 12/4 car after being forced to give up his off-road safari business because of the coronavirus pandemic.

He also wants to use the historic vehicle as a potential bridal car and for school proms, and anniversary events.

Mr Growden operated Discovery Safaris on Exmoor for 15 years but had to stop in March, 2020, when the first Covid-19 national lockdown was enforced.

Now, he has ‘readjusted and re-evaluated’ the business and transferred the licence for his Land Rover Defender safari vehicle which was valid until the end of October.

He said: “I did not want to give up the knowledge I have learned about Exmoor and now I can take people over the national park and tell them about Exmoor like I have done over the last 15 years, less the off-road participation.”

Harold started life ferrying World War Two RAF pilots from their digs to their airfield and after the war was put in a museum for 20 years before it closed and the car was sold into private ownership.

From there, Harold passed through a couple of loving owners before Mr Growden bought it last year and started customising it He said: “My intention is to continue with the essential business of taking people across the national park, but in this case as an informative and structured tour of the area with a maximum of three people at any one time. It is a great shame that my safari business has been a casualty of Covid-19 but I believe that although not on the same scale a new business can go forward and this is the beginning of ‘The Discovery Tour of Exmoor’.”

Current licensing rules for West Somerset state taxis and private hire cars should not normally be older than 10 years – although Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) recently said it would drop the age limit next April when a new county-wide council was created.

Mr Growden said the 1,500cc Morris 12/4 was the medium-size saloon car of its day in the years leading up to the Second World Ward.

He said: “Harold is an excellent four cylinder, four-speed car that goes extremely well. It is a rare car in the condition that it is in. It drives without fault, pulls up in a straight line, and has a real vintage feel to it. It’s a joy to be a passenger or to drive with the sliding head roof opened.”

SWT licensing officer Brad Fear said Mr Growden had invested more than £3,500 in works to ensure Harold met legal requirements as well as standards required for the council’s ‘plate test’

He said the licence allowed Mr Growden to take pre-booked fares but not to operate from taxi ranks or be hailed by passengers.