Our first weekend trip with the Model A was going to be an unusual one. We had booked to join the North Leicestershire MG Club on their annual Charnwood Caper. I think it was safe to say that our car would be the odd one out and it was. About 95% of the cars had the MG logo. The clue was in the club name.
As part of our quest to see the UK in our Hot Rod we don't want to just turn up to shows and park up in a field for the day. We want to drive the car and see the sights and if we can do that in the company of other car nuts then all the better. For £20 we got drinks at the start and at the lunch stop, a rally plaque, a route book and a glowing feeling for our contribution to the charity Headway. Allegedly, Classic Car and Hot Rod owners don't mix well together but hopefully we will be able to bring some added colour to these rallies and if this first one is anything to go by we won't be disappointed.
We set out on Saturday morning taking the scenic A6 route all the way, from our house to Loughborough. It doesn't have the same romantic connotations that Route 66 has but it was a lovely drive nonetheless. With the top down and a slightly overcast sky we were soon cruising through Northamptonshire, including Kettering town centre, a place we normally bypass. It was a nice little town actually, then on through Desborough and continuing until we entered Leicestershire. Soon after, we took a small detour off to visit grade two listed Foxton Locks on the Grand Union Canal and had a pleasant time looking around the newly refurbished Boiler House museum. We then inspected the 10 locks (the longest set of staircase locks in Britain) that make up Foxton Locks, built between 1810 and 1814. Sadly, there is very little left of the innovative Gordon Thomas inclined plane and boat lift. It was only in use for ten years from 1900. It cut down the travel time from over an hour using the locks to 12 minutes with the boat lift. It would take £20 million to restore it to it's former glory. It has been turned down by the National Lottery for funding as they say there is insufficient of it left to be eligible. I think it's a real shame as it would be a major tourist draw (as evidenced by the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland) as well as being of historical importance but no doubt the funding of modern art museums that no one will visit is considered to be more important.
Back on the road, one of the things we noticed was quite a few Union flags flying, not
something you see very often in England, whereas in the USA it's hard to go
more than a few miles without seeing their flag. We were soon manoeuvring our way round the inner ring road in Leicester. There was little of note to see apart from the Leicester railway station building, impressive and elaborate Victorian architecture.
It wasn't long before we'd arrived at our destination just outside the town centre in Loughborough, The Cedars Hotel in Cedar Rd, recognisable by the cedar tree at the front. It was cheap for a Saturday night at £49 room only, it was just off the A6 away from the traffic noise, our upstairs room at the end of a corridor was quiet and reflecting the price, it was basic and a little tired in the decoration but ideal for our needs.
Dave soon discovered that the steam trains were running on the Great
Central Railway so we hot footed it to the station, a five minute walk
away and found one of Britain's best kept secrets. The railway line from
Loughborough to North Leicester was a real treat and a giant step back
in time. The attention to detail at each of the four stations was
tremendous, with each one set in a different period. Loughborough
station is an "island" station with glass and iron canopies, typical of
the Edwardian era. The layout in the waiting rooms and other buildings
was for the Queen's coronation in 1953. The station had been lovingly
restored and also housed a nice little museum. At platform one was a
steam train with Pullman carriages and people finishing off their formal
lunch before alighting.
We just had time to wander up to the sheds to see the volunteers working on an assortment of steam and diesel engines before boarding our own train pulled by a Stanier 8F steam locomotive with old familiar carriages now made famous by the Harry Potter movies and scarily, used by me when I first started work in 1978. The train took us on a picturesque journey, stopping off at each station along the way. As we hadn't boarded until after 3pm we didn't have time to get off and have a look around Quorn and Woodhouse of 1940's vintage or the Edwardian period Rothley stations but we were able to get off at North Leicester and had a look around the replica station containing 1960's memorabilia while the engine was swapped to the other end of the train for the return journey.
On our return journey we went to the front and sat in the observation coach; a First Class carriage, decorated in the wonderful art deco style that I love and seating was in comfy armchairs. The carriage is streamlined and with the curved windows at the back it must have been a spectacular sight on the outward journey but I'll settle for looking at that fabulous engine instead. This proved to be a more than satisfactory way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
From there it was another ten minute walk into the town centre just as the market stalls were packing up and going home. The stall holders make just as much mess here as they do in Bedford but within a couple of hours the council workers had totally cleaned the market place up, leaving the Town Hall looking resplendent in the reflection of the setting sun. Meanwhile we went into a nice looking pub called The Blacksmiths which proved to be a good choice. It has recently been refurbished in a modern style, the staff were friendly and they served Moretti and Strongbow at cheap prices, probably because of the proximity to the University. We had intended to have a couple of drinks and then move on to a restaurant but when I caught sight of the the "award winning" Pieminister pies they just had to be tasted. Dave and I both had the same and when it arrived it was very unusual but delicious; served on a bed of mashed potato, homemade pie filled with hock ham, free range chicken and leek, topped with grated cheese, caramelised shallots with mushy peas on the side and a jug of gravy. It sounds disgusting but was actually very tasty.
I thought I was seeing things when I looked out of the window and saw a
bunch of bananas run by but no, a few minutes later they came in with
two monkeys chasing them. Being the shy retiring type that I am I was
soon sitting with them for a photo opportunity. It was the monkeys
birthdays so I guess this is a typical Saturday night out in
Loughborough.
After leaving the pub and wandering around the boring Anytown shopping
precinct we discovered Queen's Park. In the centre was the Carillon
Tower, an enormous monument commemorating the 480 men who died in World
War 1. It was built in 1922 and houses 47 bells crafted in one of the
local foundries for which Loughborough is famous. Unfortunately we were
unable to go up to see them as it was so late. The park also boasted a
beautiful flower garden and an interesting statue which turned out to be
the casing for the Great Bell in St Paul's Cathedral.
Our intention was to walk back to the hotel but after one drink in The Phantom we were passing The Royal Oak and decided on one for the road. This pub was like a tardis. As we sat there more and more people kept coming in and the bar staff struggled to cope. The band, Indio Black finally struck up and they were very good, starting off the with some of the old favourites cover bands always sing and then moving on to recent songs. We sensibly went back to the hotel before the second set but I slept really badly, suffering from a major case of indigestion from either the pie or the Strongbow or both probably because I am not used to rich food or alcohol any more. I hoped there was no one in the room downstairs. I crept around but the floor boards were very creaky and I took some time to settle.
Sunday morning and we arrived bright and early at Quorn and Woodhouse Station for registration and breakfast at the cafe. We all lined up in the goods yard and yes there were only a few of us not in MGs and we had the only Hot Rod. It turned out to be a good decision to join this rally. It was very well organised, a good route map with big writing so I didn't have to keep changing my glasses. The route was a circular 80 mile drive in the countryside around Leicester. Using a paper Sat Nav is very much like using a real one. You are following instructions but completely lose sight of where you are geographically so without looking at a map I cannot be certain where we went. The first half of the journey was through pretty countryside and we drove past Thornton Reservoir but the villages were not anything special with the the odd house of interest but mostly seemed to be houses built in the second half of the twentieth century. We were going great guns until just before lunch when we followed a blue MG. The owners, like us, thought they knew better than the route planner mileage and took a turning a mile too early and soon realised we had no idea where we were were. Soon after we were joined by the oldest car on the rally, a beautiful black 1939 VA Tickford MG (our 1931 body is older but that hardly counts) owned by a couple in Peterborough. Luckily we had a map book in the car and soon found our way back onto the road to the lunch stop at Wistow Rural Centre where we were herded into a field to park and a very impressive line up it was too. This gave us all an opportunity to have a look around what was effectively an assortment of posh farm shops and a garden centre and then to have a chat with some of the other owners. Then it was onto the second half of the journey and this was even more scenic with villages to match, finishing up at Abbey Pumping Station grounds. The grand Victorian building provided an excellent photographic backdrop for our final get together.
As if we hadn't educated ourselves enough this weekend with canals and
trains we now went into the Abbey Pumping Museum to find out how
wonderful the Victorians were at creating a sewerage pumping system to
nearby treatment works. It vastly improved the health of the people of
Leicester who until that time had the worst mortality rate in the
country for deaths related to infections from the sewerage system or
lack of it. It was built in 1891.
The Wolfe compound rotative beam engines are beautifully decorated and all four are still in working order. I was reminded of an earlier visit there with Paul when he was 10 and he and his mate were fascinated by the display where you could drop a plastic turd in a toilet, flush the chain and watch it travel down to the "sewer". Boys will be boys.
We had intended to finish the trip off the next day by returning to the Space Centre next door but it doesn't open on Mondays. We didn't have time to look around the Centre before it closed so we had to satisfy ourselves with the bizarre sight of grown up Captain Scarletts and aliens wandering about in honour of the Brit SciFi day. All in all we'd had a fantastic day with some lovely friendly people who made us both feel very welcome and we were glad we came.
Our second hotel was Rothley Grange. I only booked this a few days previously and when we arrived I realised we'd booked at an absolute bargain price of £75 including breakfast. It was an old country house in typical country house gardens. As we checked in we were told there was a wedding going on but it wouldn't interfere with us. We didn't worry about it as it was the opposite end of the hotel to our room and seemed to be a sedate affair. Our room was lovely, with three different views, luxury bed and fittings. Needing a rest after a long weekend we had a couple of hours kip during the late afternoon. After a refreshing bath and change we took a stroll through the village. A traditional cricket match was in progress otherwise there was nothing of note to see here and it was back to the hotel for dinner. The restaurant was nicely laid out in country mansion style. By now we realised it was a Greene King Establishment, the menu was pretty much pub grub and the prices extremely reasonable so we weren't expecting much of it but it was actually very nice so I thought we'd hit the jackpot here. Unfortunately by now the inebriated wedding party had moved and had pretty much taken over every available space downstairs and the understaffed bar was struggling to cope so we decided to go up to our room to bed only to discover that the loudest disco you could imagine had started up two floors beneath us and there was going to be no chance of sleep. We have learnt over the years that if you are not happy don't just put up with it, so we got moved to the annexe- still a nice big room and comfy bed but modern and more importantly, quiet, so we did get a good night's sleep and a £20 discount. Breakfast was excellent, fresh fruit, the full English and pretty much everything you could wish for. The hotel was suffering from typical corporate short sightedness prevalent in the service industry in this country- under staffing and taking the fast buck instead of looking at the overall picture to give the best customer service to everyone. Have a wedding or have guests. You can't do both in the some hotel and keep everyone happy. It was a bargain true but you still need to sleep ! I have to say though putting this aside I give 10 out 10 for the hardworking, friendly staff, how they handled our problem, the food, the setting and the comfort. I would willingly pay double but please tell me if you've got a wedding booked so I can go elsewhere or at least straight to the annexe!
Cromwell Monument
Our return journey home was via the A5199 which gave us the opportunity to visit the site of the Battle of Naseby, a deciding factor in the defeat of King Charles First in the Civil War of 1645. Only 20 miles from our house, it's the first time we've ever visited the battle site, Oliver Cromwell's monument and the Obelisk Monument commemorating the battle! Then it was a drive through the pretty Northamptonshire villages until we reached Sywell Aerodrome where we parked up for a photo opportunity in front of the art deco style hotel and a cup of tea before heading home for an afternoon in the sunshine working in the garden. What a great weekend it was and if this is how they are going to be I can't wait for the next one.
More photos on Dave Brown's Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=674369456024406&set=pcb.674376146023737&type=1&theater
Things to do if we return:
The Carillon Tower
The Charnwood Museum
The Foundry Museum
The Space Centre
King Richard Third's burial site
Total mileage approx 230
Links: Foxton Locks - http://www.goleicestershire.com/outdoors/foxton.aspx
Great Central Railway - http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/
Abbey Pumping Station - http://www.leicester.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/museums- and-galleries/our-venues/abbey-pumping-station
Battle of Naseby -
http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil- war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=51
Photo by Ian and Jenny Cox
