I did a lot of my practice in my Dad's 1956 Oxford a rather bigger beast than the Minor. I recall the Column shift and the front bench seat. But I took my test in a BSM Riley Elf.
My first car was a Minor Traveller which regularly took me to and from to London for about two years. It would have been safer if the box chassis wasnt "shot" meaning that the rear suspension was hanging on by a thread and application of the handbrake meant that the rear wheels came forward. It passed its MOT like that at a dodgy garage in Chalk Farm.
Happy days!!