25 years of Billing
Billing in Northamptonshire has been around a long time, in a modest sort of way. The little hamlet by the River Nene wasn’t actually mentioned in the Domesday Book, but it stirred from its slumbers in the 1940s when heavy machinery moved on to its riverside meadows to extract the rich gravel deposits to build WW2 aerodromes.
A decade later, the gravel pits flooded, and soon after that an enterprising businessman turned the lakes into a pleasure park known as Billing Aquadrome. Even then, few Land Rover folk had heard of the place.
All that changed in 1990, with the first Billing Show. Never before had anybody run an event specially for Land Rovers. The organisers wondered whether anybody would turn up, but they needn’t have worried. They flocked there in their thousands, from all over the world.
For the next ten years, Billing was the only show in town. Land Rover enthusiasts saved all year to splash their cash at the countless trade stands. Many, including LRM columnist Frank Elson, made a holiday of it. He and his beloved Marjorie would camp there for the week, renewing old acquaintances and making lots of new ones.
By the time Billing celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2000, it had reached new heights. That weekend, motorists were warned on Radio 2 to avoid the A45 near Northampton because it was clogged with long queues of Land Rovers. The venue was so full, people had to be turned away.
In truth, that was Billing’s swansong. The next year, a rival show was staged. More followed in subsequent years. And as internet shopping became all the rage, some traders ceased attending. They sold their tyres, tents, roof bars and racks online, instead.
In 2007 a freak summer storm flooded the meadows and, for the first time in its history, the Billing Show was postponed. A year later, the country went into recession. All this should have sounded the death knell for the event.
But it didn’t, of course. Just as Solihull was the spiritual home of the Land Rover, Billing remained the enthusiasts’ Mecca. It was too important to just fade away. It was saved by Land Rover fans from all over the world, who just kept on coming. And it’s as much fun today as it’s ever been.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the Billing Show and I know the organisers have got some exciting events planned to mark the occasion. We’ll keep you informed of what’s planned for the Billing Show (Friday, July 31 to Sunday, August 2) on LRM’s news pages, and via our website, but I can’t resist mentioning it here too – not least because we want you to get involved, too.
LRM will be taking a stand at the show and we want to surround it with readers’ Land Rovers – 25 of them, to be exact – one for every year of production since 1990. And every day during the three- day show, they will take part in a special cavalcade into the show’s main arena, where the proud owners will be interviewed by the legendary presenters Diana Tigwell and David Bowyer.
Do you want your Land Rover to take centre stage at the 25th Billing Show? If so, get in touch, telling us about yourself and your vehicle, including its year of manufacture, and tell us why you think you deserve to be chosen. Oh yes, and send a photo of it, too.
The owners of the chosen vehicles will get free tickets for all three days of the show.
“If Solihull is Land Rover’s spiritual home, Billing is the enthusiasts’ Mecca”
What were my favourite memories of Billing? asked someone the other day. In truth there were too many to choose from. But overall I reckon it was the sight of thousands of smiling faces enjoying the sun and the Land Rovers.
What are your favourite Billing memories? Let us know and send us your favourite Billing photographs, too. We’ll publish the best of them in LRM.
I’ve just received a press release from Sainsbury’s Bank, informing me that 35 per cent of owners give their cars nicknames. The most popular are (in reverse order): Bessie, Betsy, Ruby, Monty, Speedy, Susie, Bugsby, Jenny, Sybil and Boris. It comes as no surprise to me that more than a third of cars get nicknames – I bet more than half of Land Rovers do – but what puzzles me is why a bank would waste money carrying out such trivial research in the first place.