The seller grew up in Dartford in Kent with Bill and Doris as his next-door neighbours, and he remembers them taking delivery of this Tahiti Blue Hillman Minx when he was 13.

It quickly became Doris’s pride and joy, and she used it every week for the five-mile round trip to do her shopping – but if it was raining, Bill would take her in his taxi, something he also did during the winter to keep it away from salty roads.

Always garaged, they also used it once a year to visit their son who lived in a house called ‘Redlands’ near Chichester.

Their fastidiousness was such that Bill even refused to use a hosepipe on it as he said it encouraged water to collect and rust to form, so he washed it using a bucket and a sponge, a practise the seller continued after he bought the car from Bill in 2012.

A charming if commonplace story – until you learn that Bill and Doris were the parents of none other than Keith Richards of Rolling Stones fame.

Our seller met Keith more than once and says he’s...