HUNDREDS of Rolls Royces were on display on the grounds of Blenheim Palace in 1968.

The oldest of the luxury vehicles on display at the annual concours of the Rolls Royce Enthusiasts' Club was a 1909 Silver Ghost, valued at more than £500,000.

Cars on display ranged from the expensive veteran to a more modern Silver Shadow Drop-Head Coup, costing just over £10,000.

Two of the cars had been rescued from the scrapheap. A Southampton University student Michael Pitwood found his flare-winged Twenty in a junkyard near his home while one member found a Ghost, still fitted with its original body, in a scrapyard in Baghdad.

Also on show were a Phantom One, owned by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, which is an exhibit in his Vintage Car Museum, and a 1913 Silver Ghost belonging to the president of the club, Oxford dental surgeon Ralph Symmons.

The club was started in Oxford in the 1950s and, in 1968, had more than 1,250 members.