Arley Hall Classic Car Show
The first Sunday in September dawned rather drearily, with a heavy cold mist, when the Burnley and Pendle expedition set out to visit the Great British Car Show at Arley Hall and Gardens. Your secretary was bundled up warmly in his MG in preparation for a cold day in a damp field This was completely the wrong decision! But, never mind, he’d remembered his picnic and you can always take a jacket off. There were five MGs and the other two “honorary” MGs were parked discretely out of shot, as it were, from the main bunch which were placed, very conveniently, next to a spreading oak tree whose shade came in very useful later on, despite the minor risk from falling acorns, because the sun soon burned off the mist and it became very warm indeed. In general, we are a driving rather than exhibiting club but usually go to a couple of shows each year. This was not the largest show we’ve been to — I suspect because it is the end of the season and there were quite a few competing single make shows that day — but what it lacked in size it made up in interest and there were quite a number of rather excellent cars. These varied from very much works in progress — a real “rat look” Panhard, at one extreme — to an apparently factory fresh and original, absolutely immaculate, MGB GT V8 in my favourite Damask Red, on the other. And a pre-war Kellner bodied Bentley 4 1/4 L was a real jewel. Apparently, some of the ladies also visited the Gardens … All in all, a very good day with a jolly picnic and not too many wasps. Irv and Gail are going to treat us to something more conventional in October.
