Where are they?

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Although I'm constantly adding to the information in the Trials Sections Database there are still a number of historic sections whose whereabouts remain a mystery. They are generally sections mentioned in 'Wheelspin' or 'Cowbourne' but without sufficient explanation to even get close to a possible location. Any assistance in tracking them down, or at least pointing me in a possible direction, would be greatly appreciated. At present, they're all Cotswold sections. Please contact me with any ideas or offers of help.

Aggs Hill, Piccadilly, and the quarry
Ashmeads, Middle Drag, Stancombe
The Guitings, and Woodmill
Warren Hill

Aggs Hill, Piccadilly, and the quarry

The area around Piccadilly Farm, on the upper slopes of Cleeve Hill above Cheltenham, has been used for trials extensively since the 1920s, but with a confusing array of names. This is my attempt to decipher the confusion.

Aggs Hill (1) : The first references that I've found to an "Aggs Hill" are sections used for the 1929 and 1930 NWLMC Gloucester Trial. I'm pretty certain that these used the now-tarmaced 'yellow' road, known locally as Aggs Hill, which rises steeply in an easterly direction from SO976223 (OS Landranger 163). This would also have been used, unobserved, on the route to the other sections listed here, with the exception of Noverton Lane.
Aggs Hill (2) : The next references that I've found are Section No.7 of the 1970 Guy Fawkes Trial and Section No.4 of the 1971 Guy Fawkes Trial. These are on, or very close to, the rough track which climbs north-easterly from SO989229 and, may, therefore, be the same as the PreWar Piccadilly section.
Aggs Hill (3) : The third incarnation of the name was used for the 2004 and 2005 SDMC Mechanics Trial to identify a section in the quarry at SO992232. Different parts of the quarry were used for the two years.
Blue Hill : Section No.7 of the 1971 Guy Fawkes Trial. From the route card I think this was probably in the quarry at SO992232 although the top of the Piccadilly track, where it bears right by the quarry, bears a stricking resemblance to the much better-known Blue Hills section a few hundred miles away in Cornwall.
Hewletts Hill : A hill of this name was used for the 1939 SUNBAC Colmore Trial. It could have been the PreWar Aggs Hill, Piccadilly under another name, or another section altogether. At present I have no idea which of the three is most likely.
Noverton Lane : Included here solely because it exits onto the Piccadilly track at the quarry. Used for the SDMC Mechanics Trial in 2003/4/5, it started at SO982237 and was notoriously rough (it was a Class 7/8 only section in 2004/5). It features regularly on the route of the local motorcycle trials.
Piccadilly (1) : This was used on the 1932 SUNBAC Colmore Trial. It is the rough track which climbs north-easterly from SO989229 . I assume that it was observed right to the summit just above the quarry.
Piccadilly (2) : Section No.5 of the 1971 Guy Fawkes Trial. From the route card, I assume that this may have been on the track, and therefore is part of the PreWar Piccadilly section.
Quarry : Section No.6 of the 1971 Guy Fawkes Trial. In the quarry at SO992232.

Ashmeads, Middle Drag, Stancombe

Although the Database confidently identifies these three Cotswold sections as "Full OS GR known", I now realise that the locations listed are based on my best guess, with little or no substantiating documentation to support my assumptions. If anyone can confirm, or provide alternatives, I'd be most grateful.

Ashmeads : I know that this section, used for the MGCC Abingdon Trial in 1937 and 1938, climbed to Oakridge Lynch from the road alongside the river and canal to the east of Chalford. For some reason, which I cannot now explain, I do not believe that the section used the now-tarmaced road starting at SO915029 (OS Landranger 163) but may have gone up the hillside to the west, starting around SO912030. Has anyone got any ideas, either way, about this?
Middle Drag : I have always assumed that this section, used for the 1936 NWLMC Gloucester Trial, used the very prominent track (now a bridleway) which climbs onto Stinchcombe Common in a roughly south-easterly direction starting from ST736991 (OS Landranger 162). Can anyone confirm this, or provide a better guess? 6 January 2010 : I now have more accurate information about the exact location of Middle Drag and will update this page in the future.
Stancombe : I have always assumed that this section, used for many PreWar trials and the Falcon "Guy Fawkes" Trial in the early 1960s, is the now-tarmaced road which rises from the Slad Valley starting with a steep right-hander at SO881073 (OS Landranger 162), then running alongside the Merve's Swerve section as used on the modern Cotswold Clouds Trial before climbing to Stancombe Farm, Bisley. But, as there are numerous other Stancombes in the Cotswolds, can anyone confirm this location?

The Guitings, and Woodmill

I've now decided that it's time I tried to unravel the various "Guiting" sections.

Guiting (New) : A section, initially known as "New" Guiting, was used for the 1932 and 1939 SUNBAC Colmore Trials. It was definitely different from the Guiting Woods test, but where was it??
Guiting Woods : No questions about this one. The crossroads in Guiting Woods at SP084259 (OS Landranger 163) was a favourite location for special tests on both the NWLMC Gloucester Trial, and the SUNBAC Colmore Trial, in the 1930s.
Lower Guiting : This is referred to in "More Wheelspin" as being used for one of the early Post War (1946?) Colmore Trials. There is nowhere on any map that I can find referred to as "Lower" Guiting and I wonder if it might have been one of the three tracks that climb away from the ford at SP091254 (OS Landranger 163).
Woodmill : No questions about this one either. Used for various runnings of the Falcon "Guy Fawkes" Trial in the 1960s and 1970s, it is the current track (not shown as a right of way) that crosses a stream and climbs in a roughly north-easterly direction from SP080266 (OS Landranger 163) through a small wood towards a notional crossroads.

Warren Hill

After I completed my search for Kineton in 2002, I turned my attention to tracking-down Warren Hill as one of the more significant "undiscovered" Cotswold hills. Cowbourne lists its use for the 1938 Colmore, and there's a picture of Imhof in Cream Cracker MG BBL 81 on Page 50 of Thomas, stated as being on Warren Hill in the 1938 Colmore, but it doesn't give any real clues. Kevin Barnes had several photographs of cars on Warren on the 1949 Colmore, and descriptions of the hill from 1938 and 1949. He also had evidence that it was used again in 1950. But none of these were very much help when we didn't have the faintest idea where the hill was.

And that's how our state of knowledge stayed for several years. I was convinced that it must be somewhere in the Winchcombe, Broadway, Guiting triangle but Kevin, and father Terence, thought it might be further afield (they were right). The breakthrough came in June 2007 when Kevin acquired programmes for the 1951 and 1952 Colmore Cup (motorcycle) Trials, with a grid reference in the 1951 programme, and a route description in the 1952 programme although, predictably, they don't agree. We can now state, with absolute certainty, that Warren (the section) is somewhere on The Warren in grid square 14*30* on OS Landranger 150.