Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire Midweek bonus Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd July

 

It was the 22nd Annual Classics on the Common organised by Harpenden Rotary club in aid of a number of charities. We travelled down the A6, took a wrong turning at the newly rebuilt junction 10A in Luton but soon found our way back on to the Harpenden road. Harpenden is a commuter town about 25 miles north of London in Hertfordshire where the house prices are double  the national average. The centre of the town is known as the village and it does indeed have the feel of one. The common is a large, attractive green space along the main road through the town with a golf course and cricket pitch and is overlooked by a couple of pubs too, so in other words it was in a great position to hold a car show. It brought traffic chaos to the town for the whole afternoon and evening. It took us nearly 40 minutes to travel the mile along the High Street and grab our spot on the Common which was strictly by pre-entry only. It was well worth it though as we were among a huge number of cars, of all types and ages many of which were rare.
 
 We were parked next to a 1924 Rolls Royce Ghost driven up from Southend for the occasion and it made our car look tiny! Paul and Shirley brought their rare Zagarto Lancia Fulvo Sport 1600, newly restored by Paul to an extremely high standard and it deservedly got a lot of attention.

Their friends Andrew and Janet came along in his yellow Capri which he has owned since he was 17 years old. Not many people can say that. We bumped into quite a few people we know and generally had a lovely afternoon wandering around looking at cars and chatting. It was packed with pedestrians as well as car owners so I imagine a hefty sum of money will have been raised at the event. The evening was broken up by our restaurant meal at Pasta Cibo in Station Rd, which had a nice Italian ambiance, good service and excellent food. I would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone. We had time for further wanderings before heading home.

My dream car and even in the right colour!

 As we left, the crowds were lining the street watching us all. Luckily people were being sensible as the police had helpfully pointed speed cameras at us all as we left the town. It was easier to go back via the M1 which was a little disconcerting when we found ourselves completely surrounded by lorries but we made it safely home.

The next evening, after spotting something interesting on Facebook, billed as a Summer Showcase, Dave and I took the Model A to a place near Banbury in Oxfordshire. It looked like it was an open garden in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind but other than that we knew nothing about it or about Ball Colgrave the company where the event was being held. To say we were blown away by it was an understatement. Well for anyone that likes car porn this was for me flower porn. I have never seen a floral display anything like it.  It turned out that the company develop and sell seeds to the trade and every year they prepare the gardens for a three week event for growers, garden centres et cetera to visit to choose their stock for the next year. There were eight acres of grounds to demonstrate the most amazing range of annual and perennial varieties of flowers in display gardens, pots, patio baskets and containers, including many new varieties for the following season.
 
 The company states "Over 50,000 plants are bedded out in traditional trial rows and informal planting schemes to help evaluate garden performance, colour range and offer inspiration for design." My vocabulary is not sufficient to describe the beauty of it all, the vibrant colours, the imagination that went into the design and the fabulous scents. They only have three full time staff working on it and then a few temporary workers to help with the watering and dead heading so they do an incredible job. I'm posting a few pictures here and a full album on Dave's Facebook page.
 

The piece de resistance was an enormous "birthday cake" of flowers which was first displayed at the RHS show in Hampton Court just a few weeks ago and somehow they managed to dismantle it and rebuild it again. The invitation came from Tim Stickings, the manager who is the owner of a stud dog for the guide dogs and is allowed to hold this special evening every year. They raised over £700 just from the sale of tea, cakes and raffle tickets. We didn't even have to pay for the enormous privilege of seeing this wonderful display. We didn't stay until the end so gave our raffle tickets to Tim with the directive that if we won a prize it should be auctioned off. We did win what must have been a very impressive flower display pot as it raised £40 at auction which was great. Disappointing though it may be that we haven't got it here in pride of place in our garden, there probably wouldn't have been much left of it after we'd got it home in the back of the Hot Rod anyway. The connection between us and Tim turned out to be cars of course. He is a member of a VW club, several of whom also turned out in their Dubs. What a novel place to go on a cruise. Now that we know what it is, we'll invite other car owners to join us next year and may be suggest to OMC that they may want to do the 45 mile ride out there through the pretty Bucks, Northants and Oxfordshire countryside and villages. The journey both ways was a bit hairy, it seemed that everyone was out to get us, cars undercutting, crossing the white line, a biker who thought he was in TT races, it was definitely silly season out there last night.

All of my pictures on this blog have not been edited or enhanced in any way as I haven't yet worked out how to do it since I had windows 10 thrust upon me. Even so aren't these beautiful? I took these photos when we first arrived before other people "got in the way". Once the sun came out the colours were even more amazing.

Saturday we went to what we thought would be a car show in Shillington but it was either cancelled or we were too late. Never mind, we enjoyed cruising the beautiful central Bedfordshire countryside on this sunny evening. We had a late start as Dave and Paul removed the engine from the dragster to take it to be dynoed.

 Busy day lifting the motor out the dragster. New power house minion is fitted Dave Brown
said Paul.

Somerset Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th July 2015

Proof that the camera does lie. The car looks good in this photo!

This week has been a sparse one hot rod wise and our trip down to Somerset was in the Astra unfortunately. The purpose of the trip was to take Paul’s dragster gear box to Zane Llewellyn’s just outside Shepton Mallet so we thought we’d make a weekend of it but didn’t want to risk an oil leak on the back seat of the Model A. We took our usual route to the West Country via Oxford and the M4 and then into Bristol. Once we got past Bristol and into the beautiful Somerset countryside we wished we were in the Model A.

Wookey Hole Caves

Our first stop I feared may be a bit tacky touristy for us and it was really. Wookey Hole caves is aimed more at people with young families with all the extra attractions. It was OK but some of the caves were closed due to them extending the access to more caves. We’ve been given free tickets to come back when it’s fully open. Then it was on to our accommodation which I booked with AirBnB in West Compton, a couple of miles off the A361 near Pilton.  It was a delightful little cabin called The Love Shack. It was simple, yet had everything we needed, including a west facing veranda overlooking green fields, masses of trees and you could just see the top of St Michael’s Tower on top of the Glastonbury Tor in the distance. The “kitchen” is outside and there was a separate toilet and shower hut, not primitive as it sounds. It had a nice modern, power shower. We made full use of the barbeque on the veranda, having kangaroo steaks, Stagsden burgers and salad on both evenings while we watched the sun slip behind the hills and a full English on Sunday morning. The peace and quiet there was wonderful, nothing but the birds singing and even they were quite restrained. No light pollution other than the sun, no TV or mobile phone signal but it did have Wi-Fi. It was the perfect retreat to get away from it all.

We drove into Shepton Mallet or S**t and Smellit as my Dad used to call it and he wasn’t far wrong. Apart from the impressive viaduct, a nice park and an attractive market square, it didn’t have much to offer and the High Street looked pretty run down. To be fair it was 5.30pm on a Saturday, after the traders had gone home and before the evening begins but it wasn’t calling out for us to hang around.  We called in at the pub in Pilton for a couple of ciders, found the décor tired and the landlord less than friendly (but Zane later told us he is quite a laugh once you get to know him and they apparently do great steaks!) We discovered that Glastonbury festival is actually held just outside Pilton. The organisers keep the locals happy by giving them free tickets or a cash alternative as well as being extremely well organised and keeping disruption to a minimum. Many of the houses are rented out or have posh sheds in their garden for the festival goers.

14th century- St Michael's Tower, Glastonbury Tor

Sunday 19^th July, our first stop was Glastonbury Tor, a steep terraced hill possibly created by erosion of horizontal bands of clay and limestone and is capped with sandstone. (It is believed by some to be Avalon) This was quite a steep climb of 158 metres but worth it for the view. Even with the low cloud you could see for miles across the Somerset levels, Wiltshire and Dorset. We then strolled into town, decided we didn’t want to pay to see a load of old ruins- Glastonbury Abbey- and so wandered through the town centre. It is clearly a hippy town full of shops majoring on magic, flowing dresses, healing and wellbeing and populated by people many of whom had dreadlocks, smelling of incense and marijuana. There was a fantastic organic food store and the only busy vegan restaurant I’ve ever seen in my life.

Glastonbury

I don’t like to be negative but have to moan here. It started to rain so we went to the Abbey Tea Shop for a cup of (caffeine free) tea. There was only one other table occupied and we waited for at least 5 minutes to be served but no one came so we left. We try to use independent businesses as much as we can but so often the level of customer service, attitude and training is so poor it drives you mad. No wonder the bland, boring franchises like Starbucks and Wetherspoons are taking over the world.

Burnham on Sea, donkey rides optional.

Moving on, the sun was due to come out, so we set off on the 15 mile journey to Burnham on Sea and it did. It’s an understated resort in the Bristol Channel but nice enough and even the Tourist Information was open on a Sunday, a rare event these days.  We enjoyed a nice stroll along the windy esplanade and by now there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The inevitable Fish and Chips lunch ensued (from the Esplanade Fish Bar) and rated 9 out of ten- lovely cod and batter, proper knives and forks with seating overlooking the beach and only the chips cut the score, being just average.

Next stop, Cheddar Gorge which was packed with tourists and was absolutely beautiful. With the clear blue sky and vertical rock face rising by the roadside, it felt like we were in Colorado. We didn’t go in the caves on such a sunny day and just enjoyed walking through the town. The parking was a bit steep at £5 but who can blame them?  

Cheddar Gorge

After a lovely drive through the Mendip Hills, officially named an Area of Outstanding Beauty and wishing we were in the Hot Rod, we arrived in Wells, the smallest city in England. Feeling tired we got our lawn chairs out and looked for a spot to sit only to find a place near the cathedral where the finals of The Rotary Club Boules competition was in progress. A French sport it may be but it was conducted in a very British manner. After a bit of shut eye we walked around the edge of the Bishop’s Palace and then to the front to the cathedral which looked fabulous, particularly with the blue sky back drop and with the sun starting to go down it made the sandstone a spectacular colour, highlighting the intricate carving on the façade. 

Wells Cathedral

We chose a pub in the High Street called The King’s Head and once again the landlord was miserable and unsurprisingly it was pretty empty. After one drink we moved onto Wetherspoons and that was packed. I rest my case sadly. There won’t be any independent places left at this rate.

Monday morning after dropping off the gearbox at Zane’s we drove through a few pretty villages and then onto the A303 and A34 home, a pretty boring but fast route  apart from the stretch through Salisbury Plain (with the ripened crops making it look like the prairies) and to top off the weekend – Stonehenge! 

link: The Shack, West Compton  https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/1093607?eluid=0&euid=7bfd9c17-af8f-ba87-6538-0db0ea9dbe08