Belatedly, I am deeply saddened to report the passing last year of Jennifer Newbery. Jenny was a long standing member of the Centre and she knew many of our founding members like the late Arthur Neal and Chris Rowe. Her husband Tony Newbery is still active with us; he brings Jenny’s plus four, bought new from Richard Thorne Classic Cars, to our Southern based noggins on a regular basis. I first new Jenny when she had a 4/4 that she had purchased new from Mike Spence which will give some of you an idea of how long ago that was. Jenny had many long standing friends in the Centre and for me she is another connection to our early days that have been lost to us. On behalf of the Centre I would like to send our sincere condolences to Tony and family – to live in the heart of those we love is not to die.
On a happier note, this month we have two trips away to Corfe Castle and Torquay during the respective Bank Holidays. At the time of writing we are still enduring a cold winter/spring. In Russia they are joking that this is the fifty-second day of February. We have had some snow, enough for us to cancel one of our National Trust visits recently, but not on the same scale as Russia or the northern part of Britain for that matter. It seems that thanks to the jet stream diverting our usual weather system we have all had it a little hard. I heard somewhere we have had an eighteen month winter. Well, having said all that, I think it is about time we had some glorious weather – here’s hoping for our trips in May. I would like to thank the organisers of these two super events.
On Sunday 26th May we make a welcome return to Cliveden, a National Trust property near Marlow, meeting up at 11 am. There are some superb grounds to explore as well as a fine house right next to a beautiful stretch of the River Thames. Yes, I almost forgot there is a maze to explore – one of the biggest you can find, so I’m told. At the time of writing I had been negotiating with them to allow us to park our Morgan sports car in front of the house to put them on display to the public. However, during the course of discussions, in their infinite wisdom, the National Trust now want to charge extra for us to offer this provision in their milieu. As you can imagine I declined this offer. This does seem to fly in the face of them wanting to encourage people to visit their properties by having classic cars on show. Shades of one hand not knowing what the other is doing. I am grateful to Roger Prior, our Events Co-ordinator, for tipping us off with this information. Therefore, we shall be meeting in the normal entrance car park as before. I hope you can join us; it should be a pleasant day out in very beautiful surroundings. All Centres are welcome.
Please don’t forget that Steve Bridge, on behalf of the Thames Valley Centre of the Morgan Sports Car Club, has arranged a tour of the Bothy Vineyard followed by wine tasting. Bothy Vineyard, which is situated three miles west of Abingdon, has been established for twenty-nine years and continues an ancient tradition of wine making in The Vale of the White Horse, that dates back to medieval times. The tour has been arranged for Sunday 9th June, at 2 pm. As this event is being held over the Beale Park weekend we suggest if you would like to take part in both events that the main day for Beale Park will be on Saturday 8th June for us to visit as a Centre. I hope you will be lucky enough to attend both as I plan to do.
As springtime hopefully develops the planning for future events continues unabated. Ian Wilson has proposed a scenic run to the Cotswolds culminating in a cruise on a canal boat with refreshments and possible cream teas, etc. planned for late September. If you would be interested in such an event please do get in touch. If we can get enough people Ian will be pleased to go ahead with this event. All Centres will be welcome. I hope we can get this one going as I feel it will be a super event. Thank you Ian for your suggestion - please watch this space.