Frank Rice-Oxley

An excellent example of enthusiastic collectors taking their vision into business is Frank Rice Oxley and his son Simon.

Frank was born in 1928, and fondly recalled being given no less than three Dinky 29c double decker buses for one Christmas from his sisters, forming a complete fleet! He would have been about 10 years old, and also remembers them being given away later.

Subject ID: 81076

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An excellent example of enthusiastic collectors taking their vision into business is Frank Rice Oxley and his son Simon.

Frank was born in 1928, and fondly recalled being given no less than three Dinky 29c double decker buses for one Christmas from his sisters, forming a complete fleet! He would have been about 10 years old, and also remembers them being given away later.

Later, whilst in the Army undergoing National Service, Frank developed an interest in historic Post Office vehicles, but it wasn’t until 1955, whilst attending hospital in Epsom for X-rays, that he saw a veritable mirage of post office vehicles and he was hooked. He read books on the subject, and found he had a flair for retaining detail. He had entered the publishing world, and progressed to Chairman of the family business, Metal Bulletin, founded in 1913.

With a resurgence of interest in Post Office vehicles after spotting two Albion vans in Oxford, Frank founded the Post Office Vehicle Club. This club is now flourishing and has a membership of over 200.

In 1986, two years before retiring from this industry, then having become a non-executive Director, Frank formed Roxley Models with his son Simon, now 34. They had regularly been scouring the Toy Fairs and swapmeets in the south of England, looking for appropriate models to strip and repaint as Post Office models, initially for their own amusement.

However, with the arrival of Mabex on the scene, the pace quickened, and they began trading at the toy fairs, and issued their first mail order catalogue in 1988. The models may not have been completely authentic, but there was a steady demand for them.

The white metal involvement came from Alan Smith, of A. Smith Automodels, who approached Frank offering to make post office models for him. Initially they fell foul of the Post Office regarding Royal Mail licencing arrangements, but after the application for a licence was successful, Frank got official work from the Post Office, which also attracted the inevitable royalties to pay to them as well!

Early orders included 60 model High Top Post Buses, which Alan did the patterns for and cast, and supplied in batches of 25 or more. Specialist vehicles included Royal Mail nightrider vans in black livery, together with four in concept Green livery to indicate environmentally friendly build. Unfortunately, these were so gadget laden, that the trial had to end prematurely as the real thing was supposed to be fuel efficient and was anything but!

A Hong Kong Leyland DAF Riot Van followed, together with Sherpas to a number of postal regions.

Much of this side of the business has contracted due to the Hart Smith models going into receivership. However, Bill Barnes, now living in East Anglia approached Frank with a proposal. He had seen a 1930s Morris Linesman’s van in a scrapyard, had measured it up in detail, and offered to make the model if Frank took a regular stock. Bill continues to cast and produce models for Roxley.

Frank had opened his first shop in 1988, at Smith Brook Kilns near Cranleigh, Surrey and more recently has moved, in 2000, to Great Bookham. Simon’s interest in railway accessories has meant the stock has diversified, but interestingly they have found that with the televising of James May’s series on BBC2, a sudden upsurge in demand for Scalextric and Airfix kits has occurred. This meant that their shop experienced the best Christmas sales in years.

It is an interesting comment on the development of the white metal hobby, that a Roxley models Hong Kong Police Riot Van, originally sold for £55, recently achieved £220 at an auction.

Subject ID: 81076

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