Some years ago, I had the pleasure of chatting to Arthur Neal about the formation of our club. I ascertained that he and Chris Rowe had thought it would be good to form a Centre west of London. Until then they had attended London Centre. Imagine in those days there was no congestion charge or ULEZ. Petrol was getting a little more expensive but not excessively so as it is now. Anyway, they hunted around and came across the Bird In Hand in Knowl Hill, adjacent to the A4 between Reading and Maidenhead. In fact the original name for the Centre was Reading. So back in November 1970 we held our first noggin at the Bird In Hand. It was an exciting time in 1970: Concorde had its first flight and we were still sending men to the Moon. Meanwhile we had Plus 8s and 4/4s running about on sliding pillar suspensions.
Sadly we have lost both Arthur and Chris, two of our founding members: important links to the past no longer available to us. Well at our First-Thursday Noggin in July, we had a visit from a member who has just renewed his MSCC membership after a long hiatus. David told us that he had been at the founding noggin over 52 years ago. Welcome back David. We recommended he makes contact with the editor, Charles Neal, Arthur’s son, who no doubt would be interested to hear of Morgan life in the 70’s. I hope David we will see more of you as a link to the past that I thought we had lost.
In June ThamesMOG visited the Aston Martin Heritage Trust. You may think that viewing five and a half Aston Martins housed in the Trust’s 13th century barn would not appeal to Morgan owners. How wrong you would be. We were treated to a fascinating 1½ hour tour by the museum’s guide, which highlighted the details of the drivers, owners, and designers of the special cars hosted by the AMHM. How did the name ‘Aston Martin’ come about? Why is there a chequered flag from Le Mans hanging in the museum? For the answers to these questions and why 5 ½ cars, look out for our full report in a future Miscellany.
For the second year running, John Grover of SogMOG had invited ThamesMOG to West Tisted Vintage aircraft fly-in that was held in July. It was good to see ThamesMOG members, who had put their faith in the weather forecaster and not what they saw out of the window at breakfast time, joining with SogMOG for such an exclusive event. The fly-in is held to raise money for the local hospice. Money is collected for every plane that lands and every car that arrives, plus the proceeds from the cake stall. Despite there not being as many planes as last year due to the inclement weather £1,220 was raised, which as John says, must mean that a lot of cake was eaten. Hopefully John will invite us again next year.
On Saturday 12th August, ThamesMOG will be joining other Centres at the Bentley Drivers Club meeting at Silverstone. There is usually a large contingency of Morgans who park up at Copse corner. The Bentley Drivers Club has held its annual race day at Silverstone every year since 1949, and this year’s event will be the 75th consecutive, making it one of the longest running events in the British club motorsport calendar. There are nine races during the day, including two rounds of the Morgan Challenge. The meeting is a very friendly affair. Families take picnics and sit in the sun or the grandstands to watch the racing, or wonder around the paddock to admire the vintage Bentleys.
Also in August, ThamesMOG will be joining other Centres at the RAF Odiham Familes Day. ThamesMOG would like to thank SwanMOG for the invite to this event. Registration for this event has been closed for some time, so unless you have already submitted your details, you will have to wait for another year to attend.
In September, why not join us at the West Green House Classic Car Show on Sunday 24th September. ThamesMOG has applied for club entry, which will provide, as in previous years, free entry for your Morgan, driver and one passenger.