Our section weekend based at the country house hotel, Headlam Hall, near Darlington, was, in the end, well attended. We welcomed members from the North Eastern, Northern, Yorkshire and East Anglian Sections, together with members from the Jaguar Owners and Enthusiasts’ Clubs and friends. After dinner on the Friday evening Nick Clarke had organised a ‘feely’ competition. This was quite innocent and involved identifying objects contained in cloth bags. There were eighteen objects in all, ten car related and eight household. All of us got some of them and some of us got (nearly) all of them! Saturday took us to Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle were there was an impressive display of cars line up on the gravel at the front of the museum. These created much interest with members of the public who were given an extra and unexpected treat to their visit. One young enthusiast, after inspecting Graeme Calvert-Thomson’s 1938 H J Mulliner Phantom III Sedanca de Ville, announced that when it rained ‘they would get wet’. At dinner on Saturday evening we were well entertained by the Ramside Trio (piano, double bass and violin) who played, unobtrusively during the meal and performed a cabaret afterwards. Many continued in the bar until the early hours so it was lucky that we did not have a particularly early start on Sunday morning to drive to the Beamish Open Air Museum where the North Eastern Club for Pre-War Austins were holding a rally. Although the name implies a one make club in fact all makes are welcome and there was a good turn out of machinery old and not quite so old. Although the cut off date for entry was supposed to be 1990, Duke Mike Pannell paraded with the rest of us with his 1998 Silver Spur.
Photos include: Graeme Calvert-Thomson’s 1938 PIII Sedanca de Ville, by HJM, chassis no. 3DL34 at Bowes Museum and Nick Clarks 1928 20/25 experimental chassis (formally chassis number 14-G-IV now GLR28X) at Headlam Hall.
