Brian, Chris and Ray had planned a route
following the old A38 to beyond Gloucester. We stopped briefly for a
cuppa just outside Bridgwater and after a brief but all too long stint
on the M5 around Bristol, we thankfully left this behind and began to
continue to enjoy our trip North.
We arrived without further hitches at our lunch time stop in
Cambridge in Gloucester, where we had planned to meet up with the rest
of our holiday group, Dennis and Shelia Brown with their Standard Flying
12, Bob and Val Richardson with their Standard Avon Drop Head Coupe and
Geoff and Sharon Cattermoule with their lovely Standard Vanguard
Vignalle.
After a pleasant lunch catching up, we all set off for the final leg
of our journey to Chelmarsh in Shropshire, within striking distance of
the Ironbridge gorge. Brian had suggested we split up and leave in two
groups with the two older 1934 cars making one group lead by himself and
Dorothy and those with younger models forming a second group. The plan
was each group to stick together, looking after each other and arrive
together at our destination.
The slightly larger group of four cars set off first, with
anticipation of arriving first, but due to some road diversions around
Worcester ended up in a pretty little village on the outskirts of town,
slightly off the planned route. Thanks to the help of a very helpful
landlord of a local pub whose wife handwrote not only directions for
rejoining our route but where we could find the local petrol station
(itself a rare sight these days) we were soon back on track. However all
this delay had taken its toll and a comfort stop was looking like a
necessity, before we reached our final destination at the pub. Dennis
who was at that point in the lead, spotted the ideal place, which
naturally lead to some light refreshment in the prettily named Button
Oak Ina which meant we ended up arriving half an hour after the
allegedly slower group!! A bit like the tortoise and hare.
After everyone had settled into their rooms, all fourteen of us met
up for our evening meal, which Brian had arranged in advance of our
stay. Everyone had enjoyed their respective trips up, the weather had
been pleasant and we were all looking forward to the next few days
although the weather had started to deteriorate slightly after we
arrived.
Friday dawned grey and misty but it didn’t dampen everyone’s
enthusiasm and after a hearty breakfast we set off towards Coalbrookdale
the area where we would find several industrial heritage museums,
including The museum of Iron the gorge and the famous Ironbridge.
Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to join a formal tour guide to the
site and then split up to get the best out of our visit. Some walked up
the hill to look at the houses of the Managers of the factories and then
down to the river to see the famous Ironbridge, which we were assured
was just a short distance away. This proved to be a slight exaggeration
as we soon discovered, but as it was down hill we decided not to shoot
the messenger (we all know who we mean - Steve). After doing the usual
touristy things like having our photo taken on the famous bridge we
moved on to the Museum of the Gorge. Suddenly things changed. the clouds
which had been threatening all day decided to deposit their contents
just as we planned to return up the hill, to our cars.
Chris and Steve offered to walk/run back to the cars, in the pouring
rain and rather than everyone get wet, return to ferry the other drivers
up the hill. The rest of us sheltered in the museum, praying that they
weren’t planning to close early. Before we knew it they returned and
ferried the drivers back up the hill and soon the whole group was back
in their vehicles, although I understand some found the weather forcing
its way into several vehicles.
Saturday morning was equally wet but it did not deter the group from
setting out once more towards the gorge, this time we were visiting the
very pretty Blist Hill, a collection of Victorian houses, relocated from
around the area to make up a working village staffed by volunteers. who
took the parts of residents. There was pleanty to see and the group set
off to enjoy what was on offer. Some enjoyed the locally baked buns and
visited the old fashioned sweet shop, which we could all remember,
complete with paper bags and scooped scales. Being Westcountry folk we
did have one disappointment, the replica of Richard Trethivick’s first
self propelled steam locomotive was not running on the day of our visit.
That evening we were joined at dinner by Phil and Lynda Homer who
were staying locally with their Standard 10 Saloon and by Ray and Diane
Ferris in their Pennant.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny and the group set off for our day at
the Black Country museum in nearby Dudley. Brian provided us with maps
of how to find the museum once we came into the town and assured that if
we should get lost, we should ask a local inhabitant where the well
known webmaster Phil Homer was born, as the attraction was actually
opposite that very same hospital. Fortunately no one got lost, so we
didn’t need to test out that theory!!
Again we had a very interesting visit, although not everyone
appreciated the underground Mine tour, as some of us (me included)
thought we were going to be sitting on a nice little informative train
ride, not clomping through dark, low ceiling tunnels complete with a
torch set to shine like the original candles used, to create the
authentic scene, quite an experience, which some us wives, would rather
forget.
After much laughter at how we must have looked going through those
dark tunnels and a great deal of thanks that that wasn’t how we had to
earn our wages, we continued our visit.
The sun continued to shine, the brass band played in the park and
everyone met up at one time or another on this large site and shared our
tips on what to visit next.
