What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Mike Costigan]

A similar story in Derbyshire; the local yacht club on the Goyt Valley reservoir will need to throw their yachts off a 40-foot cliff if they want a sail!

   

[Andy Bennett]

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Following on from my carburettor swap today, we went out to a brave new world for us and the car. Having moved 300 miles north, today was our first trip out in beautiful Northumberland.

We moved her up a couple of months ago, but with building work on the house absorbing every minute of the day we haven't taken her out. Also the reason I couldn't make the Centenary as we only had half a house at the time.

The forced inactivity for the car following our purchase of a 300+ year old Northumbrian Long House, needing complete renovation and leaving us north and the car 300 miles south over lockdowns, appeared to have made her unreliable and to be honest I was extremely worried about driving her in the roads around here, which are largely Roman in origin and so very straight, but with serious undulations. There are many quarries around here and, as a consequence, 30 tonne stone waggons thunder along B roads with no regard for others. The thought of passing over the crest of one of these roads at 20 and having a stone waggon bearing down on me at 60 has been on my mind.

But, with the carburettor replaced today the old girl has a new lease of life. 2 up we were actually accelerating up reasonable hills at 35, rather than grinding down to sub 20mph. It was an absolute revelation and we enjoyed a tour around the locality after the builders had gone home. It was just sublime and all the locals gave us a wave.

Here we are parked outside the track next to our house, sharing our view of some 50 miles down the North Tyne valley with our new neighbours, the sheep. Now I just need to join a local club having left Essex and a lot of friends in the Essex Austin 7 club behind.

[Alan]

As an expat Northumbrian all I can say is I am completely jealous.

[Jeff Taylor]

Hi Andy,

Welcome to beautiful Northumberland, I'm only a mile south of the south bank of the River Tyne though in Tyne and Wear - the south Northumberland boundary is around 5 mile west of me. I've lived here my entire life, Northumberland's a wonderful place and has no shortage of water thanks to Kielder Water! Three of my old friends all of them 7 owners live nearby, one of whom you may have come across - Christopher Oliver the Sunderland based Austin 7 dealer and the second is an ASF Forum member. Perhaps we'll all meet up sometime? Interestingly my great grandmother was an Essex girl, born and brought up in Latchingdon in the 1860's.

Jeff.

[Andy Bennett]

Thanks both and Jeff, definitely on for a meet up when life and builders have given us a chance to breathe. Out of interest are you a member of a local club, old car or A7 specific?
Andy

[Jeff Taylor]

"Out of interest are you a member of a local club, old car or A7 specific?"

I'm not now Andy, though I am a member of the national Morris Register and have been for almost 50 years. As far as I'm aware there are no A7 specific clubs in Northumberland / Tyne and Wear / County Durham, the nearest to us and one of the best would be the Scottish Austin Seven Club. I believe they do have members in the North East - in fact one of Ruairidh Dunford's close friends and SA7C member lives very near to me, he and I have spoken a couple of times over the phone but never actually met - one of my old school friends is an occasional client of his and they were talking about A7's only a couple of weeks ago.

Back in the early 1970's I joined what was then called the 'North East Club for Pre War Austins' (NECPWA) with my 1936 Morris 8 Series I Tourer which I still own. The club had been founded in 1966 by the late Tony Pelton a Heaton, Newcastle based school teacher. Back then the majority of the membership owned pre-war Austins of various horse powers many of them Sevens. As the years progressed and the older membership died out, the younger intake were joining with predominantly post-war and classic multi make vehicles rather than pre-war so by 2012 the club decided to change their name to the 'North of England Classic and Pre-War Automobiles' (NECPWA). In recent years I noticed they'd decided to stop distributing the A7CA Grey Mag as so few members now owned Austin 7's. I stopped being a member in the late 1990's. It seems a very active club both locally and between southern Scotland and North Yorkshire so worth checking out as I believe there are still a few A7 owners within the membership. 

http://necpwa.org/index.php

Jeff.

[Jeff Taylor]

Hi Andy,

Just a quick update. I've been looking at the NECPWA website and I'm pretty certain that their Vice Chairman Keith Dobinson is an A7 owner and it appears as if he's also responsible for distributing the A7CA Grey Mag but presumably only to those members with Sevens. I see the next NECPWA event is on Saturday 3rd September at the Swarland Show, Vyner Park, Swarland Village NE65 9BQ around 5 mile south of Alnwick.

Jeff.

[Andy Bennett]

Thanks Jeff

[Duncan Grimmond]

Ahhh.. Northumberland, the most wonderful place (bar Yorkshire of course!) We're just back from our family holiday on the coast near Embleton. Didn't see a single interesting car though, they don't seem to like the sea!

[JoeRowing]

Went off to lunch at a local farm followed by some Devon hill climbing...

Edit, it doesn't look it but it's a 1:5 hill!
   

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