From the JES (Jesus) Jones collection with thanks to Mike Dalby and Bryan Ditchman. Leckhampton is interesting for two main reasons: it caused a sensation when first used for the 1935 Colmore Cup, as described in detail by Austen May in Wheelspin; and it is right on the outskirts of Cheltenham and probably closer to…
Classic Sections – Ibberton
From the JES (Jesus) Jones collection with thanks to Mike Dalby. I’d long wondered about the location of the wonderfully atmospheric picture on Page 161 of Bacon but it wasn’t until August 2007 that Bryan Ditchman positively identified it as Ibberton Church Hill. (There is another picture of Ibberton on Page 106 of Bacon.) Shortly…
Classic Sections – Dane
MG Musketeer team captain MacDermid climbs Dane, probably on the 1937 Wye Cup Trial. Photograph taken from page 48 of Thomas. Dane Hill in Kent is hardly a well-known PreWar section, so why does it feature here? Solely because Brunell took some photographs there, in 1937, which have been famously mis-attributed. Data County OS 100km GR Entry…
ACTC Championship Trials
The ACTC was founded in 1981 and the Championship was started in 1984. Since then it has run every year, although awards were not made for 2001 (as the number of events was reduced by the Foot and Mouth crisis) nor for 2020 (as most events were cancelled due to the Coronavirus crisis). This page…
The MCC Spring Trial
The MCC Spring Trial is, as Simon Woodall says below, “a little scrap of forgotten MCC history”. In October 2007 Simon Woodall sent me the Results for the 1980 event, with these comments: This is a little scrap of forgotten MCC history. The Spring Trial ran for two years, 1980 and 1981. The Clerk of…
Really Classic Sections
Back in December 2012 I prepared a list of the ten trials sections in longest continuous (or almost continuous) use for major trials, intending it to be used as one of Michael Leete’s Classical Gas Christmas Quiz questions. As it turned out, Michael found some better questions, but I thought people might be interested in…
Famous Test Hills
Climbing steep hills has held a fascination for the motorist since the very early days, as shown by these articles from motoring magazines of the 1920s and 1930s. The links all open new windows with the articles as PDF files. Some Noted British Test Hills Article from The Autocar for December 11th, 1920. This makes…
About Page updated
I’ve just added a third paragraph to the History section of the About this site Page, noting the background to the recent Website changes. The more observant will also notice that the website strapline has changed from “The When and Where of Classic Trials” to “Classic Trials History”, to reflect the latest re-focus.
The Guitings unravelled
The area around Guiting Power and Temple Guiting, on the Cotswold Hills between Cheltenham and Stow-on-the-Wold, was criss-crossed by the three main trials that used the North Cotswolds – the SUNBAC Colmore and NWLMC Gloucester Trials pre-war, and the Falcon Guy Fawkes Trial in the 1950s to 1970s. After discovering Kineton, my attention turned to…
Classic Sections – Kineton
The Woodalls, Bertie (driving in the cap) and Victor (passengering in the fedora), in Victor’s Wolseley Ford special at the start of ‘New Kineton’ on the 1939 Colmore Trial. With many thanks to Simon Woodall for providing both the original photographs. Although Juniper might be considered a very obvious candidate for the first in this…