Devon and Cornwall Holiday

The Devon and Cornwall Group - On their holidays in Yorkshire

A group of members from Devon and Cornwall and elsewhere spent 10 days doing a tour of the country, it seems, and having a thoroughly good time. Linda Bowden gives a comprehensive report on the holiday:

Picnic under the overhang at Cheddar

Sunday 31^st July, Karen and Steve Lovegrove arrived in Exeter in their 1934 Standard 10 for the start of our trip to Yorkshire. We had planned to met up at our home with Lynda and David Swallow, but unfortunately Steve and Karen had experienced some overheating problems, on their 50 mile journey up from Plymouth.

We topped up Steve’s radiator and spare bottles and we decided to replace his radiator cap with the temperature gauge from “Hattie” our Avon, enabling him to monitor the temperature, on route.

On meeting up as planned with Ray and Julie Horne in Willand there was a small delay, whilst a roadside repair took place from Ray Horne’s extensive spares collection, carried in his boot, and a new fan belt was fitted on Steve‘s 10, before the trip started in earnest.

Lynda and David Swallow were in their Standard 14, Ray and Julie Horne their cream and red Drop head coupe and we were in our Standard 4/8a. The plan was to meet Dennis and Shelia Brown in their Standard Flying 12, Sharon and Geoff Cattermoul in their Vanguard Vignale and Val and Bob Richardson in their Triumph TR4 at our first over night stop at Stratford Upon Avon. Ray and Diane Ferris were arriving on the following morning.

After setting off, our own car began to have fuel starvation problems which resulted in some very long stops in many lay-bys as we limped towards Stratford. After several attempts to solve the problem it was diagnosed by Chris and Ray to be a faulty fuel pump. Chris had a second hand one in his boot and he replaced the fuel pump the following morning.

A picnic lunch was enjoyed on route under the overhang (!!?) at Cheddar Gorge, in brilliant sunshine and to the amusement of the open top tour bus which passed by regularly. Steve had planned a route through the gorge, Melksham, the Cotswold Water Park and Stow on the Wold before arriving at our first Travelodge in Stratford Upon Avon.

You can click on all of the thumbprints to see the enlargements:

Kettle's boiled!

We were met by Dennis and Shelia Brown, Geoff and Sharon and Bob and Val Richardson when we arrived at the hotel in Stratford. This gave Lynda and David the opportunity to present Ray and Julie with matching red and blue hats and a couple of very cute Noddy and Big Ear figures, as part of an on-going joke about the colour scheme of their newly acquired drop head coupe.

Following an early start for Chris, to change our fuel pump, we set off in convoy to our second overnight stop in Lincoln, unfortunately Steve Lovegrove’s vehicle was still having problems overheating which resulted in another long day, with more roadside consultations from the group.

It was agreed that it was worth contacting the clubs excellent spares man Brian Parkes to request a head gasket to be sent on to our final destination in East Ayton, near Scarborough. Brian was very happy to oblige (thanks Brian) and this was quickly becoming clear to us, it was a case of daja vue as we had had similar problems at the national.

The group spent a very enjoyable evening at a local pub, thanks to the help of club member Alan Brinklow, who not only suggested a lovely country pub nearby, but also provided a link for the menu and booked our table. Unfortunately Alan was unable to join us as he was away himself for the weekend, but we all enjoyed his recommendation and had a lovely meal.

To minimise any further delays the Lovegrove’s had already made an early start on the Tuesday morning, after promising to ring us when they reached the next destination, a visit to Castle Howard.
We set off on the route, crossing the Humber bridge and took the opportunity to stop for photo’s, admire the amazing structure and stretch our legs before continuing on.

Steve and Karen had written out all the routes, up and back to Yorkshire, including planning optional visits each day. Castle Howard, proved a really interesting afternoon visit and we were able to view the house and see some of the gardens, before leaving for our hotel for the week in East Ayton, three miles from Scarborough.

Arriving in style at Castle Howard

The first night at our hotel the whole group met up for dinner and enjoyed a very pleasant meal and chat, with lots of discussions and advice for Steve on when was the best time to tackle replacing the head gasket, as we had a full schedule planned for the week. David and Lynda also handed out a quiz to be completed, using what ever cheats (internet, phone a friend) you could find and the winners would be announced on the Sunday evening.
Steve carefully considered what was the best action to take as the car was still going, and he didn’t want to make more problems by disturbing the head.

The next day, Wednesday, Lynda and David kindly provided transport into York for Steve and Karen and we all enjoyed a joint visit to the National Railway collection. After our visit to the museum, some of the ladies grabbed a lift on the land train into the centre of York.

The group had split up and later reported back on their various visits to the cathedral and shops etc. Diane and Ray did fall foul of a torrential but brief downpour, which resulted in some localised flooding in the immediate area. The threat of a storm also delayed Steve and Chris’s planned trip up the Cathedral tower, although they did eventually manage this when the storm passed over.
We all met up for a meal in York town before returning to our hotel for the evening.

Thursday we were invited to visit Derek Matthewson’s Garage and classic car collection which was very interesting, before joining the local group for a road trip, arranged to include bangers and mash in a authentic Yorkshire pub. Before this quite a few people made a trip into Scarborough on public transport in the morning and Chris and I enjoyed a trip to Filey and around the Yorkshire coastline in our Standard.

Outside Mathewson's Museum

Pickering Show
The car run arranged by the local group proved to be a real challenge for the cars and the navigators, as it took in quite a bit of the North Yorkshire moors, but the views were stunning and well worth the effort, and we thought we had steep hills in Devon!
Steve, not wanting to miss out on the run was determined to nurse his car around the course. This proved quite a challenge and resulted at one point in Chris, Karen and Ray pushing the car up a very steep hill. Photo five We also had our share of problems on the run which meant we had lost contact with the main group, but we still managed a visit to Holmfirth (used as the set for Addensfield for the series Heartbeat).

Friday dawned bright and sunny. This was excellent news as the plan was a visit to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for a trip to Whitby by steam train, made all the more enjoyable by the lovely weather. This proved to be an excellent English seaside day out, with wall to wall sunshine, fish and chips for lunch, with some of the group visiting the ruins of the Abbey and others enjoyed a trip on the sea in a pirate boat or on the steam bus.

Saturday was the day planned for the Pickering Steam Rally, unfortunately this also was predicted to be the worse day of the whole week for rain. True to form we were able to line up our cars, put up the club banner and look around the show, before the rain came in around mid morning, as predicted. Yorkshire folk obviously living up to their reputation as hardy souls, totally ignored the storm and torrential rain and continued to enjoy the show and look at the displays, although most of us (softies) retired to their cars to wait out the storm. Unfortunately the weather was definitely in for the day, so late afternoon we returned to our hotel.

Steaming out of Pickering

Day trip with the local Club
Before Sundays run, Ray, Steve and Chris had planned an early start to change the head gasket on Steve’s car, in preparation for the journey home on the Monday. Things went to plan, following some very good advice from Ray to loosen the cylinder head nuts the night before and soak the studs in penetrating oil. By the time Chris arrived on the scene at 6.15am Steve was grinning, holding the cylinder head above his head. It had popped off easily, unfortunately they had noted a severely burnt exhaust valve which was obviously contributing to the lack of power from the engine, As we could do nothing about this, on site, it was decided all they could do, was put on the new head gasket and hope for the best.
Steve had arranged a trip around the local area, to include some very pretty villages, a trip to the Mouseman furniture museum and past two very impressive Monastery ruins. In the evening we sat together and checked our quiz answers, Sharron and Geoff proved to be the “No it all” winners and our group the sorry losers, but all agreed it had got all our grey cells working.

It was a very days pleasant trip and an excellent end to the weeks holiday. That evening we all enjoyed our last meal together, before the group started to make their way home the next morning.

Unfortunately following Sunday’s run, it was apparent that Steve’s car was still experiencing serious problems and would not be able to make it all the way home to Plymouth. After some discussions, Steve and Karen agreed to have the car relayed home, complete with three sets of our cases, stuffed with all three couples dirty laundry (leaving us with our overnight bags) which left room for Steve and Karen to travel with Geoff and Sharron in their Vignale to the final overnight stop.

This was obviously a great disappointment to Steve as he was keen to finish the whole holiday in his own vehicle, but it was agreed it would be better for the car, as it wasn’t clear what the problem was. Sharron and Geoff redistributed their luggage into ours and Ray’s car, to enable them to make room for Steve and Karen, for the journey home.

Diane and Ray Ferris left the East Ayton Lodge in the morning for home, as did Bob and Val Richardson having both said how much they had enjoyed the week.

Dennis and Shelia Brown were staying with us to the first overnight stop in Macclesfield. This journey proved very exciting in many ways, as we passed through the lovely Yorkshire Dales, took a direct route through the centre of Bradford, which we all achieved very successfully, as Sharron described “as if we were joined on a piece of elastic” and through the Peak District, climbing 524 metres above sea level at one point, at the Holmforth Summit, all complete contrasts, before arriving at our Travelodge for the night. Dennis had spotted a pub just down the road from our accommodation and we dumped our bags before enjoying another meal together.

Dennis and Shelia left us the following day at Whitchurch during our next stage on the journey home, after we had all enjoyed a coffee stop together. The next bit of the journey took us through the Forest of Dean before our final stop in Lydney for the night. The group took advice from our landlord before walking into the next village for a very enjoyable last meal together.

Sharron and Geoff left us in the morning (returning briefly for their hats which were in the wrong car!!) and the final members of the party after redistributing our luggage, we took Karen in our car and Steve went in Ray’s. We crossed the Severn bridge and arrived at the services in Cullompton where Steve and Karen were meeting family, for the final stage of their journey home and we arrived back in Exeter on the 10^th August, mid afternoon.

I hoped everyone had enjoyed the holiday and the trip and we voted it a great success. Discussions were already being made about a short break away together next year.

Special thanks go to Steve and Karen Lovegrove for all your efforts in organising the holiday, producing maps and route’s, arranging the weeks accommodation, joint club run and our Sunday run and others within the group for their help with sourcing the touring accommodation, ensuring the whole trip was great success.

Thanks also go to our very own touring mechanic Ray for his knowledge and enthusiasm in keeping everyone running and for being Chris’s third hand on priming the fuel pump at the necessary moments! Thanks also to Lynda and David for arranging the quiz.

My only complaint was getting back my dirty laundry following its trip to Plymouth and back!!

An end to a wonderful holiday for us and our 1947 4/8A. We covered 1320 miles from door to door and worked out our fuel consumption to be 38.60 mpg.

Further info - On investigation following our return home Chris discovered that the intermittent fuel problem was due to an air leak on the second fuel pump through worn threads on the top cover. A good spare pump has now been fitted with new valves and diaphragm.

Report and Photos by Linda Bowden

Webmaster's note: Great to hear how all the members rallied round to keep the cars going over 1300 miles, including a spares delivery from the Pre-48 Spares Officer. What would we do without Brian?

These are your pages and I always welcome your input. If you have been to an event, there are lots of members waiting to see a report and some photographs of it here. Please send them by email to: webmaster@standardmotorclub.org.

Many thanks.

Phil Homer

August 2011