For the final trip of 2023, members of the Derbyshire Region set off for Northumberland on 3rd October. Our base was the Linden Hall Hotel just outside Morpeth in Northumberland. Mike and Julie had planned an action packed 2 days in their home county of Northumberland.
There were 12 cars in total and we all made it to Linden Hall just outside Morpeth. Roger and Joan joined us at the hotel, having stopped at Barnard Castle to ‘view a car’, which turned into ‘we’ve bought a car!’. A Mini Cooper ’S’ if you must know. We look forward to seeing it. Apparently it’s a beauty! (Note: No Jaguar’s were disposed of as a result of the purchase of this car!). Glyn and Rita decided that the trip was too precarious in the E Type so brought along the Bentley Continental GT instead. After a full committee meeting this was deemed an acceptable substitute (!!!) because we didn’t want Glyn to fret over E Type reliability issues. There was discussion relating to commissioning stickers saying ‘Service Vehicle’ or similar, but in the event these didn’t materialise.
Day 1 saw us meeting up near Scotch Corner just off the A1. A hearty lunch saw us ready for the first drive through scenic countryside, and a mix of roads with stunning scenery. The roads were varied but the views really were excellent.
On arrival at the hotel, Angela gave us a demonstration of how much luggage can be packed into an XK Convertable. I personally have never seen so much packed into so little. Photographic evidence below!
We were all looking forward to the evening dinner, and we met in the bar as is customary. A search for a member of staff to man the bar eventually proved successful, after which we enjoyed a very nice meal in a private dining room. Geoffrey managed a few words after dinner, as is expected.
Wednesday dawned with reasonable weather although the weather forecast medium term wasn’t brilliant. Breakfast was excellent. We decided that we should have a group photo outside the hotel before the weather deteriorated. Easier said than done, as the selected location (in front of the hotel) seemed perfect in theory, but in practice the frontage wasn’t big enough for 11 Jaguars and a Bentley. We improvised as best we could. Your editor declined Geoff’s suggestion to climb a tree to get a better picture.
There then followed a cross between a scenic drive and a competition with the theme of ‘Cars and Castles’. The idea was to submit a picture of a Jaguar (or Bentley!) outside a castle en route. As it happened, this wasn’t taken totally seriously, as several members (no names mentioned) chose to show their ability enhanced by Photo Shop (other image enhancing software is available!). A late rule clarification discouraged such enhancements.
Another fantastic dinner followed back at Linden Hall. Geoffrey again made a brief (for Geoffrey!) speech.
For Thursday, Hartley had arranged a trip up to The Jim Clark Museum in Duns, as it’s only 75 minutes up the road. See separate post on this topic.
Most people therefore stayed a third night at Linden Hall, although Dave and Sonja continued to explore Northumberland independently for a couple more days.
Most therefore returned to Derbyshire on the Friday, having had an excellent time.
Many thanks are due to Mike and Julie for suggesting and organising the event. We very much appreciate all the effort that this took, especially with a few unexpected complications that occurred but which did not impact the success of the event. Thanks also to Roger who assisted with organisational details at short notice.
This is the final trip for 2023 but we are already planning 2 events for 2024.
Pictures are courtesy of many of the attendees on the trip.
