In the summer of 2018 the Government, in response to their 25 Year Environmental Plan, commissioned a Designated Landscapes Review. The Final Report (the ‘Glover Report’) was published in September 2019 but it was not until January 2022 that the Government responded to the Report and launched a formal consultation “Seeking views on the government…
The Cotswold Clouds is 60!
The Cotswold Clouds Trial was first run on 18th March 1962, so the event is sixty years old this year. The trial did not run on five of those sixty years, so it’s not actually the sixtieth event, but sixty years since the first running is still an anniversary worth celebrating. The Cotswolds had, of…
Databases updated
I have just published new printouts from the Trials Events Database and Trials Sections Database. The updates include the sections used for the 2022 Exeter and Clee Hills Trials, and the previously-unknown locations of some hills used by the MCC for the Exeter and Land’s End Trials during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. This is…
More on the Gregory
Shortly after republishing my Post on The Gregory, I unearthed an email which I’d received back in 2013 from Charles Helps of the Historic Lotus Register. He had attached two photos of XPP 886, an 1172cc sidevalve-engined, Lotus Seven lookalike, Gregory from 1956. I’ve checked on the DVLA website and it’s still around, still 1172cc,…
Cowbourne Updates
After the publication, in 2003, of the last of his quartet of books (three on trials drivers, and one on rally drivers), Donald Cowbourne maintained a simple website to promote the books. He also published a set of updates, the last in January 2008 just six months before his death in July 2008. For some…
Golden Age of Motoring – Caption corrections
The Golden Age of British Motoring, sub-titled Classic Cars from 1900 to 1940, edited by Roy Bacon and published by the Promotional Reprint Company in 1995, is a large-format book of photographs from the Brunell Collection. It has been universally praised for the quality of the photography and the printing, and universally slated for the…
M.G.Trials Cars – Caption corrections
M.G. Trials Cars, by Roger Thomas, is one of the “Essential Seven” trials history books. Subtitled “An Appreciation of The Works Teams” this large format book was published in 1995 to accompany the MGCC “60th Anniversary Weekend” celebrating the formation of the famous Cream Cracker and Musketeers MG Works Teams. Lots of photographs, some well-known, and…
Classic Trials Books
It’s quite amazing that one hundred and twenty years of classic trialling has produced a total of only seven books devoted exclusively to the sport, and one of them (the MCC history) features non-trials motorsport as well. Here’s a brief list, in roughly chronological order and arranged by author. All were originally published in hardback….
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The Experts Trial
The Experts Trial was organised by the Mid-Surrey Automobile Club from 1933 until 1938. It used seventeen different sections scattered around Exmoor, so not quite on the organising club’s doorstep. Exmoor has always been prime trialling country and the Mid-Surrey AC were not the only club to travel miles to use Exmoor sections. The Brighton…