Telford man turned down Beatles' 'Baby you can buy my car' offer

Not even an offer to a Telford householder from the Beatles' Apple Corps that he could keep their crocked Bentley for a knockdown price – it must be worth an absolute fortune today – proved persuasive.

And while Shrewsbury has recently celebrated that town's Beatles connections with a special weekend of events, a series of photos in the possession of Michael Davies reveal an extraordinary incident when the Fab Four's prized psychedelic motor broke down and fetched up on a Telford driveway.

"I've been a massive Beatles fan all my life and thought these pictures were astonishing from the local interest point of view," said Michael, from Ellesmere Road in Shrewsbury.

"In the early 1980s I was a photographic assistant, a trainee basically, at the dark room at the Shirehall, and the guy replacing me because I was going to college, Chris Nottingham from Montford Bridge, found out that I was a Beatles fan and said he had some pictures of John Lennon's Rolls-Royce, and brought them in.

"I've found out since that this was not the famous Rolls-Royce that John Lennon owned, but the Beatles Bentley, which was a Bentley S1.

"There's a line in the Beatles song A Day In The Life which goes 'he blew his mind out in a car.' That person was the original owner of the Bentley. I don't know his name, but in the 1960s he owned a couture shop, in London I presume, called Dandie's. Apple bought it and inherited the Bentley, did it up in psychedelic colours and it became the Beatles Bentley.

"I would imagine it was driven by a chauffeur or one of the road managers.

"When Chris brought the pictures round I was flabbergasted. There, lo and behold, were these pictures of the Beatles Bentley in Telford on somebody's driveway. He said that they were taken at his relative's house in Telford. I think he said that John Lennon had broken down, but I don't think it was likely that John Lennon was driving it as there would have been more of a fuss."

Michael thinks the pictures were taken sometime around the time the Beatles were breaking up, which would point to a date of around 1969 or 1970.

"It broke down and they asked this chap, my friend's relative – I don't know his name, and I think he said he was his uncle, but I'm not sure – 'can I put it on your driveway until we get someone to fix it.' The funny thing, and this had me laughing like a drain, is that Apple wrote to his relative and said 'Do you want the Bentley at a knockdown price? You can have it.' His relative said 'No, get it off my driveway.'

"I've trawled the internet to find out anything about it and there is one picture showing the Bentley being fixed on the driveway. The rear axle is off. It's a massive job."

Michael does not know where in Telford the Bentley had broken down and why the car was in Telford in the first place.

He has lost touch with Chris Nottingham, who later had a photographic shop in Frankwell, so has not been able to find out more details.

"I think the Bentley is still around in a museum somewhere."