CLUB OF THE MONTH
Facebook-based group loves exploring the Lake District. Dave Barker reports
SOME Land Rover clubs around the country seem to be struggling with membership and getting numbers at their events, others are doing all right and one or two seem to be very successful.
One club I’ve been
watching for a while now via Facebook, is The Lake District Landrover Meet. I guess its not a club in the old meaning of the word, but an informal group of likeminded enthusiasts that simply meet up in the Lake District, and from the reports they are very successful. Their Facebook page informed me of the Spring Gathering at the Lakeland Motor Museum, which is somewhere I’d never been and it was about time I did. It was also a chance to meet fellow members of the group.
The Lakeland Motor Museum is located on the southern edge of the Lake District at Backbarrow, so a nice drive over from my home in Harrogate skirting the Yorkshire Dales early on a Sunday morning sounded like a good idea as well.
Upon arrival I was met by event organiser Dave Biott, who said the Lakeland Motor Museum couldn’t have been more welcoming and accommodating, allowing the Land Rovers to park up between the main museum buildings and the Campbell Bluebird exhibition building.
The latter housed a number of Bluebird car and boat replicas, and a very tidy Bluebird-blue Series I 86-inch, which was owned by Donald Campbell himself and may have been used as a support vehicle for Bluebird.
Over the next hour various Land Rovers arrived, and members of the group talked all things Land Rover. One Land Rover however seemed to be the biggest talking point, a black Defender 110 belonging to onelifelivedit.com. A very interesting conversion, not that anyone was looking to use it anytime soon, but when the time
comes what better way for your last run out to be in a Defender 110 hearse.
Another type of Land Rover also attracting much attention, were the very famous toy models of Thomas Hodgson. He posts photographs of his old childhood model toy Land Rover mostly off-roading on his Instagram pages. Amazingly his toy Land Rovers have over 5700 followers.
In total around 26 Land Rovers made it to the meet, most were from the Lake District but others had travelled over from the North East or from Liverpool. As always the 90 was the most popular Land Rover along with a few 110s and also a couple of Discovery 1 and 2s. Representing the new models was a L322 Range Rover, Disco 5 and my D4. But it was good to see a few leafers out, with a couple of Series IIS and a SIII along with Dave Biott’s SII Lightweight.
With a special discounted rate for the group, there was also the Lakeland Motor Museum to explore. If you’ve not been before then it’s worth a visit, it’s rammed full of exhibits with cars and motorcycles of all ages and makes, plus advertising and motor-related goods – there’s even a display of garage trolley jacks.
All in all, it was a great day, a very relaxed way to spend a Sunday with lots of friendly like-minded people to meet and chat with.
Check out facebook.com/ groups/791510670895205 for details of their upcoming events.