Club of the Month
The world’s biggest Land Rover club stages an informal gathering at Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway
It’s the turn of the world’s biggest Land Rover club and their informal outing at a steam railway in Bolton Abbey
First I have to say, this wasn’t really a club event as such. It was an informal gathering of SIS, of which the majority of the owners are members of the Land Rover Series One Club
It is many years since I went along to a Embsay Station Land Rover gathering. I first drove to one in my own Series I, which I hadn’t owned very long and my son was overjoyed when he saw Thomas the Tank Engine. My son is 30 now, but the atmosphere was exactly the same, when I recently attended a meet on the same railway, organised by the same club, of course.
It had been my intention to drive there again in my own Series I, but like so many plans which involve old Land Rovers it didn’t come off. But I’m glad I attended anyway, because the turn-out was superb.
It took place on the same Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway but further along the line at the Bolton Abbey station, where it has been held since 2013, and always on the National Drive it Day.
This year’s gathering was organised by Mark Strangeways, a well-known and well-travelled Series I enthusiast. Around 50 lined up in the goods yard at the station, along with a few later Series II and Series III models, which kept the leaf spring theme going.
My first impression when I arrived was what a great collection of Series Is, but where was everyone? There was no one to be seen. It turned out that most owners had taken up the special 2-for-1 offer and gone on a steam railway ride down the line to Embsay station.
My walk down the display of Series Is revealed a host of superb vehicles, plus some autojumble bits and bobs including axles and doors and smaller bits of bodywork to look through.
The vehicles on parade ranged from those showing many years of hard-worn patina, to some very nicely-restored examples and others in a used working condition – to me the best condition of all: loved, but used.
There were also a couple of well-known vehicles on display, including the recentlyreconstructed (from parts found on the Island of Saint Helena) Oxford. It’s a shame being that its sister vehicle from that historic expedition, Cambridge, isn’t
also still around.
The other well-known Series I was one I’ve not seen for a few years – the blue 1954 Station Wagon SYB 617, called Sybil and owned by David Bowyer when he was secretary of the Series One Club, and which has featured in many magazines over the years.
But it was a very nicely-restored 107 Station Wagon that attracted the most attention, with its long single bench seat in the front rather then the usual three individual seats of a normal Land Rover.
There was also another 107 in the line-up, but this one was a truck cab and recently fully restored to a superb high standard by David Leach. For me, it was the best vehicle there, and by far, the one I would have taken home.
In all, this informal gathering was a great day out. Along with the display of Series Is, several went off on a road run and took in a few local greenlanes – after all, it was National Drive It Day.
The same informal gathering will be back next year, once again on National Drive It Day (held on the weekend closest to St George’s Day). Look out for details and hopefully next year I will make it in my own Series I.