Ronald John Walter Appleton (referred to simply as ‘John’ from this point on) was born in 1910. The Appleton family were founder members of the firm of Collings & Appleton, a firm that by the mid-1870s had been absorbed into the Educational Supply Association Co. Ltd. (ESA), a company specialising in the production of books, materials and furniture for schools. By 1883 the ESA had established a plant in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. John probably joined the family business in the early 1930s. As a qualified engineer he was employed at the Stevenage branch where he skilfully combined his professional duties with his motor racing interests. He garaged, serviced, redesigned and modified his cars at the Stevenage plant, making good use of the Company’s engineering facilities and employees. In the early years of his interest John drove commercially built cars, but by 1934 he had begun using his engineering skills to design and develop his own record-breaking racing car, the Appleton-Special. This report tells the story John’s motor racing career between 1930 and 1948, with particularly emphasis on the development and racing success of the Appleton-Special.
Published in 2009 by The Stevenage Society for Local History, the report comprises 32 pages with 9 photographs, 10 line drawings and facsimiles of 7 contemporary adverts.
