BSAs At Brooklands

BSAs AT BROOKLANDS by Anneke Burger-v.d. Blom
From “Front Wheels” November 1993
Our 1993 Summer holiday was, toboth us and our children, a very pleasant and varied one, also thanks toseveral BSA members. Our holidaystarted well, when we visited themeeting at Brooklands, the museumand the old race-course (circuit) andafterwards with the wonderful dinnerwe enjoyed with Mr. Dick Birkheadand his wife Audrey at their house inWeybridge, together with manymembers, several of whom we havebecome acquainted with in themeantime (over the years).
Ourchildren Vincent and Raymond weredriven to Dick’s house in TonyOliver’s BSA, whilst I sat in JohnChadwick’s car; a wonderfulexperience. The drive my husbandJaap was allowed on the Brooklandsrace-circuit, in order to make a videorecording, with Graham Skillen’s andJohn Chadwick’s permission, was aunique experience. We were verymuch impressed by Brooklands.At present there is a British serial onDutch television, called the House ofEliott. In one the instalments therewas a scene at the Brooklands race-circuit, with beautiful old time cars.The next day, on our way to Land’sEnd, we visited the Haynes Sparkfordmuseum with the fantastic old timecars, where we discovered awonderful water-colour painting,representing the Brooklands race-circuit. Then we continued ourjourney to Cheddar, where we werewelcomed by Peter Tillett at hisgarage. The latter invited Jaap todrive in his BSA car. We spent onenight on the nearby private campsite.The next morning we paid a surprise073-asvisit to the Cheddar caves. Cheddar isa lovely place and the cheese tastesexcellent!
In Ross-on-Wye we called on Mr.Hilary Way, BSA member, for a cosytea. We visited our other friends inRoss, as well as the local “Lost Street”museum.
In Holyhead we took the ferry toIreland (Dublin). On board therewas a singer who song Irish folksongs,accompanied by a very good band.We spent four days in SouthernIreland and visited castles, laid outgardens and lovely little villages. Wereturned to Dublin and from Waleswe travelled northwards. Withbeautiful stops for overnight stays wedrove to Scotland. On 26th Augustwe reached John O’Groats, our finaldestination, where, the next day, wecelebrated Raymond’s thirteenthbirthday. We then went south, toWest Yorkshire, where we met PeterNicholls and his wife Jenny. Wedrove up the hill, along a windingpath, at the end of which we arrived at their beautiful old house, a freem landscape and many possibilities. We exchanged information. The next morning we left forNuneaton, where we visited ourfriends who used to own a BSA car.Together we visited the Stoneleigh Festival, where there was also a show of old time motorbikes and cars, Geoff Parr being present with hisbeautiful BSA.On our way back to Dover and in the nearby village of Grays, we met Geoff High and his wife Gladys withtheir sweet dogs. Tea and dinnerwere most welcome. Geoffs BSA,the beautiful green colour was worthlooking at. After a tour with Geoffwe first visited the old harbour andthen Mr. John King at his motorshop,BSA Trike owner and Vincent man, all very much worth visiting. It was nice seeing him at the recent Vincent meeting in Holland. Back to Doverfor the nightboat to Oostende. We had covered 5,500 kilometres, butthanks to the pleasant BSA contacts n between we had a lovely holiday,which increased our enthusiasm.Many thanks to everyone. Hope to meet you again soon!


WebSTAT - Free Web Statistics

Total Page Visits: 2152 - Today Page Visits: 3