101-year-old car enthusiast reaches motoring milestone

• Video report from ITV News Meridian's Derek Johnson

Harold Baggott, from Port Solent, is 101 and has a passion for motor cars and still gets behind the wheel for short journeys.

He first learned to drive in the early 1930s on a Model T Ford van owned by the local milkman. The first one of those cars came off the production line in 1908.

So began a lifetime's fascination, he passed his test in 1936 and went on to run a travel and coach company. The Model T is just one of the many cars he's owned over the decades.

• Harold Baggott

Harold says: "I watched the milkman drive the van and asked if I could have a drive and so I drove it first on the farm. I was only 10".

Harold's love for cars is one that has been handed down. His sons, David and Jonathan, both became racing drivers as a result.

David says: "We have both got club licenses and we were both racing around various race circuits in England".

Jonathan adds: "He was very good in teaching us the practical side of things. We got fix brakes and engines and a lot of other major repairs thanks to his experience".

At the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Harold got the chance to get behind the wheel the company's newest electric car which is more than a a century older than the one he learnt to drive in.

His grandson, Adam, says: "For him to be 101, live through two pandemics, fight in the war then learn to drive in a Model T...".

And the car crazy gene has passed all the way down the generations.

• Charlie & Felix Baggott

Great-grandson, Charlie, says: "I want to become a racing driver when I am a bit older. I love doing Go Karting now. I have just loved cars since I was very young".

Fellow Great-grandson, Felix, Says: "I don't want to be an F1 driver or something but I do like cars and I like trucks as well".

When asked how driving the new electric car compared to his beloved Model T, Harold says: "Well it's certainly an interesting experience but then technology races ahead doesn't it?".

For this family then it's a car journey that's come full circle.