This is something of a mea culpa post. I have referred, a number of times, to the Brighton-Beer (as it became known in its later years) as famously not starting in Brighton (Sussex) nor finishing in Beer (Devon) and, although this may have been true during the trial’s heyday of the 1930s, it was not true in its earliest years. It certainly started in Brighton from 1926 to 1930, but the presence of Beer in the trial’s name is best summed-up by this quote from Donald Cowbourne (British Trials Drivers, 1919 – 1928, P378):
“Curiously, the resort of Beer did not play any significant role in the Trial. It was simply one of those places through which the competitors passed during the course of the Trials.”
1926. The trial started at the Brighton Aquarium with the breakfast stop at Gould’s Restaurant in Seaton, The route then passed through Beer before heading north to Roncombe Hill (between Sidmouth and Honiton), then back east through Dorset and Hampshire. The Final Control is unknown.
1927. The trial started, once again, at the Brighton Aquarium, with a similar outward route to the breakfast stop at Seaton. The route then passed through Beer (again), on to four observed hills in East Devon, then back east through Dorset (with a lunch stop in Dorchester) and Hampshire, to a Final Control in Winchester.
1928. The trial started in Brighton (exact location unknown), then took a similar route to 1927 (passing through Beer), but with an additional hill in Dorset before the Final Control in Dorchester.
1929. The trial started at Preston Park in Brighton and took a similar route as previous years to the breakfast stop at Seaton, although competitors were faced with a night-time observed hill near Petersfield. The route then passed through Beer before heading west of Exeter to Simms, Fingle, and Pepperdon. The Final Control was back at Seaton.
1930. The trial started, as for 1929, at Preston Park in Brighton, but the breakfast stop was moved west to Sidmouth and the Final Control was at the Countess Wear Hotel in Exeter. This was the last year that the trial went anywhere near either Brighton or Beer.
During the remainder of the 1930s the Brighton-Beer started, variously, at Sidmouth, Lobscombe Corner (believed to be the current Lopcombe Corner on the A30 east of Salisbury), Taunton and Bridgewater. The location of the Final Control also varied and included Pepperdon, Fingle, Tiverton, Seaton, and the Drumbridge Cafe between Exeter and Plymouth. The closest that the trial ever got to Beer during this period were visits to the observed section known as Waterloo (north of Branscombe) in 1931, 1932, and 1938.
So … why Brighton to Beer? With the benefit of nearly one hundred years of hindsight one can only assume that this was an early example of ‘branding’ by the Brighton and Hove Motor Club. Look at the other places which could have been part of the name – Exeter, Seaton, Sidmouth – none have quite the ring of Brighton to … Beer, do they?
