The Jaunt – North West Group invades North East

Dateline: June 2013

Back in late 2012, Roy and Angela Summerscales invited other MTWC members to join them on an un-organised Jaunt to the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland. What a good idea! A group of like-minded folk ambling along in the summer sunshine, soaking up the breath-taking scenery. Well…. “soaking” came into it but not in the way originally intended.

 

Words from Ann Harfield and Steve Uprichard:

One cold, miserable, dark November night at the Lancs and Lakes Christmas Buffet, Roy Summerscales said that he and Angela were going to the North East in their Morgan. “What a lovely idea”, some of us said, “When were you thinking of going?”.  “May, June time when the weather is warmer!” said Roy.  By the end of the evening quite a few of us had expressed an interest in embarking on the journey with them. The date was set for the last weekend in May. 

Roy and Angela drew up a basic itinerary – a route, towns to visit, places to stay. A lot of work went into the planning, including a full recce of the route. Twelve Members and eight Morgans joined the Jaunt (in no particular order):

•  Roy & Angela Summerscales – MX4 Super Sports
•  Chris & Ann Harfield – F-Super
•  Barrie Jones – F2
•  Tim (TD) Green – Silver Dream Racer Super Aero
•  Bob Barlow – MX4 Sports two seater
•  Trevor Gill – MX2 Super Sports
•  Neil Blair & Sue – 60° JAP Super Sports
•  Steve & Cerys Uprichard – MX2 Super Sports

We gathered at a pub in High Bentham for lunch and then travelled together to Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales where we spent Thursday night. The weather en route was “mixed” as we say. Dry and cool or hail, rain, driving wind and cold! The warm pubs of Hawes were a welcome sight. We met for dinner and planned the rest of The Jaunt.

Friday, a new day, maybe good weather today. No! wrong – more rain. We travelled to Barnard Castle for lunch and a walk round the Bowes museum.  Bowes was purpose-built by John and Josephine Bowes over a fifteen year period as a legacy to the people of the North East.  We were treated to a performance by the famous automaton silver swan  which performs  for 34 seconds daily, blink and you miss it.  

Onwards towards Chollerford, north of Hexham, to the George Hotel which is situated at the side of the North Tyne river where we were to spend three nights. We dried out and had beer, then dinner.

Saturday, we woke up to brilliant sunshine coming in through the window although the cars were covered in frost.  After breakfast we went to Cragside, a house built by Lord Armstrong in 1863 as his country home. Lord Armstrong was very forward thinking, having electric lights and a lift system all run by hydro-power.  We drove in convoy round the perimeter of the estate. Wonderful views. 

Sunday yet another glorious day.  Off to Beamish Living Museum. Maybe a Bank holiday and good weather brings everyone out as we queued and queued. Wandering round the living museum with all the different kinds of shops in the town, we were attracted to the garage and the pub were we had a pint and pork pie. The haberdashery shop was interesting with all the different items some of which you cannot buy today.  Trevor Gill asked the young lady behind the counter if she had any sock suspenders but she very politely told Trevor that she had sold out of them as she had a rush on them.

TD was getting hungry (ten minutes after finishing his pork pie) and suggested that we had fish and chips for lunch.  After we had queued for an hour we sat down to fish and chips cooked with beef dripping cooked in a coal fired fryer, what a treat.

Monday we set off  to Malham for our last night’s stay.  You guessed it, the weather was miserable again.  On the way, some went on a walk to look at High Force waterfall near Middleton-in-Teesdale, whilst the rest of us went to find a lunch stop.  Whilst  walking round Middleton we spotted a shoe shop and went in.  Steve U asked the lady if she had any sock suspenders and to his surprise she found two pairs. He bought the entire stock.  After lunch we made our way over some beautiful and dramatic scenery in the wet and misty weather, arriving at Malham ready for a hot drink (or beer), and something to eat. It was here we learned that TD had run a big end (in his JAP engine).

Roy Lund and Jean from the Lancs and Lakes group surprised us and joined in our evening meal.  We presented Trevor with his sock suspenders, he was happy to model them to the assembled throng. 

Tuesday saw us saying our goodbyes to one another and returning home – in the cold, wet, windy weather. All in all, 500 miles or so in a mixture of weather, over some of the best driving roads in the UK.

A very big thank you goes to Roy and Angela for all the hours spent in planning the route to make it a very enjoyable few days. The weather did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm, here’s to next year! 

Photos from Barrie Jones, Neil Blair & Sue, Chris & Ann Harfield, Trevor Gill, Cerys Uprichard

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