It was quite an exciting time at the last Bird In Hand meeting; we had a welcome visit from Philip Langton of SGT, one of our local Morgan agents. He brought with him their Morgan three wheeler demonstrator for us to see. It looked so right in the car park and Philip was able to sneak it in near the entrance in pride of place. It was quite a cold night and it was at the beginning of the April that turned out to be one of, if not the wettest on record. However, this did not stop many of us venturing out to have a look. Certainly, it was the first time I have ever driven a three wheeler and quite a drive it was too - many thanks to Philip. I know a few of you paid a visit to SGT that weekend for a follow up. The last I heard the factory had at least a year’s worth of orders to produce if not more by now, I wouldn’t wonder. As with Keith Hanlon, Philip goes back a long way with the Centre, in fact they both had a long chat that evening on old times. I hope you both will return soon in the future.
Whether you follow these things or not I’m not sure but the Royal Society for the Prevention of cruelty to Birds (RSPB) have a Twitter account; they actually tweet which intrigued me when I found out. Well what is good enough for the RSPB is good enough for us, of course. I am pleased to say thanks to Denzil Rowe’s initiative, Thames Valley Centre now has a Twitter account. If you would like to follow us we can be found on @Tvmogmscc. We tend to tweet what we are up to as a Centre with any late breaking news, etc. If you would like to provide any details for tweeting please contact Denzil on email address
Back in April we turned up at the Poacher to find it had closed. It was our understanding that it had changed hands but by the time of our arrival it would be open again, unfortunately it wasn’t. Fortunately, our new member Ted Kannemeyer introduced us to a new pub that evening as follows: The Four Horseshoes, Long Sutton, near Oldiham (www.fourhorseshoes.com), RG29 1TA. We enjoyed a nice pint here and the land lord was very welcoming. This is a traditional pub with traditional values and we enjoyed our evening very much indeed. I will tell you more when I see you. Therefore, thanks to this painstaking research and the unreliability now of the Poacher we have decided to change our third Thursday evening noggin to the Four Horseshoes, this month. If all goes well, which I am sure it will, we will continue at this venue for the foreseeable future. It is a shame to leave the Poacher after all these years but with Amy and her team moving on; it wasn’t quite the same somehow. I think you will like the Four Horseshoes – many thanks to Ted for helping us with this find.
Please don’t forget that this month Sue and Geoff Giles will be taking us back to Nuffield Place the home of William Morris that is opening for the first time this spring under the auspices of the National Trust. Over the next few years the National Trust will be preserving this important home of the founder of Morris Oxford and bringing it fully into the family of properties owned by the Trust. We are fortunate to be making this welcome return – many thanks to Sue and Geoff.
Also, Terry Tedman is taking us back this month to Fawley Hill for the ultimate in home railways. When I last checked nearly all the tickets had gone, so please be quick in contacting Terry if you would like to go. Mike Aldrich is handling the monies and will forward the tickets as soon as they are available. Well done to you both. It should be a tremendous day.
Take care, see you all soon - Roger.