Derbyshire Region - Trip to Northumberland (Part 3) - The Jim Clark Museum

As part of our Northumberland trip, based as it was in Morpeth, I suggested staying a third night and venturing up to The Jim Clark Museum in Duns, since it's only an hour & 15 minutes away. Plenty of others (13) agreed and I booked a guided tour of the museum for 11.00am on the Thursday morning.

As is customary, we set off in convoy. However, I was not in the lead, but we all knew where we were going (if not where to park when we got there!). So we had a healthy convoy of 7 cars including Glyn and Rita in the Bentley, and we were soon heading up the A697 at around the legal limit. I was near the back with Lionel behind me and Ian and Glyn in front. In between me and Ian was a Transit sized car transporter, which I had mistakenly believed was holding us up slightly, but we were all more or less together so I didn't consider overtaking him. When the road opened up, matey boy in the transporter floored it (relatively speaking) and overtook both Ian and Glyn (V12 Bentley remember!) in one fell swoop! Highly entertaining! No dashcam footage unfortunately!

That wasn't the end of the entertainment though! A few miles further up the road, past Coldstream and on the A6112 now, Nigel 'Two-Satnavs' Mitchell indicated left and disappeared up an unsigned road followed by Mike, Ian and Glyn. Ken, myself and Lionel continued on the A6112 which was signposted Duns. Nigel's 'alternative route' then proceeded through a very much 'in use' FARMYARD! Nigel was later referred to as 'Cowpat Charlie' by one of those who followed him and who also faced a sizeable and unexpected car cleaning issue!

And as we approached Duns the convoy magically re-formed in exactly the order it had left Linden Hall but minus the car transporter!

Coffee was taken in the excellent 'Jim Clark Bistro' which is owned by the Jim Clark Trust. While we were there, orders were taken for lunch. We then walked the short distance to the museum where our guide, Andrew was expecting us.

The introduction to the tour by Andrew centred on how the Museum came about following Jim Clark's death at Hockenheim in 1968. In 2019 the old Jim Clark Room was extended and re-opened as the Museum following a fund raising exercise.

The museum holds many of the artefacts directly related to Jim Clark and his life, and includes approximately 25% of the trophies he won and many other mementoes of his racing career. Also in the museum were a number of his cars, including the Lotus Cortina (JTW497C) raced in 1964 in which he won the British Saloon Car Championship, a Lotus 25 and a Jaguar D Type which was the first purpose built race car to be raced by Jim Clark as part of the Border Reivers Racing Team.

Jim Clark was the World Motor Racing Champion in 1963 and 1965, and many of the trophies won throughout his career were on display. However, these represent only about 25% of all the trophies he won during his career, as the whereabouts of some are not known - 'lost' for the moment, although some are still being discovered to this day. Many were given to friends or to people to look after them, and they were simply forgotten.

Jim Clark also won the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, missing the Monaco Grand Prix in order to do so, and he still won the world championship in that year. The Indianapolis Trophy (pictured below) is in the museum, but certainly to my eyes this is not the prettiest trophy ever presented!

Following the museum visit, we returned to the Jim Clark Bistro where a hearty lunch was enjoyed. We were then free to return to the hotel or to continue to enjoy the area.

Whilst planning this part of our trip, I was made aware that the Union Chain Bridge (built in 1820) which had been closed for a number of years for refurbishment and repairs was going to open in time for our visit. It's not easy to find, and a number of us set off to discover it. Pictures below. Rachel and I decided it was, or probably was, too narrow for an XK so we read the information boards and turned round and headed back the way we had come. We met Lionel and Brenda half a mile down the road and advised them accordingly. Lionel (also in an XK) was obviously made of braver stuff than I, or had more accurate eyesight, and he made it through the extremely tight gap between the stone posts. Glyn also made it through in the Bentley.

We then made our way back to the Hotel, having had another very enjoyable day.

Pictures courtesy of Hartley and members of the Derbyshire Region including Lionel and Rita