This is my attempt, to gather together in one place, links to all the historic trialling-related videos available on the internet. If you know of any others, not listed here, do please let me know. Scroll down to see, in chronological order:
- 1933 – Colmore Trophy – ?? February 1933
- 1934 – Colmore Trophy – 24 February 1934
- 1936 – Fedden Trial – ?? November 1936
- 1937 – Ford 8 Promotional film
- 1939 – Austin 8 Introduction movie – Updated 24 July 2016
- 1947 – Rushmere Speed Trials – ?? July 1947
- 1948 – MCC Sporting Trial – 23 October 1948
- 1948 – High Peak Trial – 24 October 1948
- 1948 – Gloucester Trial – 4 December 1948
- 1948 – Hagley Winter Trial – 5 December 1948
- 1949 – Allen Trial – 1 May 1949
- 1950 – Full Moon Trial – 11 February 1950
- 1950 – West of England Trial – 5 March 1950
- 1950 – Fedden Trial – 25 November 1950
- 1950 – Clee Hills Trial – 3 December 1950
- 1951 – Fedden Trial – 24 November 1951
1933 – Colmore Trophy – ?? February 1933
This is my best guess of the locations. All comments welcome.
[0.12] – Bushcombe Lane.
[0.33] – Kineton?
[0.37] – Kineton?
[0.44] – The ford on the approach to Kineton.
[0.56] – ditto.
1934 – Colmore Trophy – 24 February 1934
This is my best guess of the locations. All comments welcome.
[0.14] – I really can’t place this. Any ideas?
[0.38] – Kineton (I’m pretty sure).
[0.45] – Kineton (the very top).
[0.52] – Gypsy Lane.
[0.59] – ditto.
[1.05] – The ford on the approach to Kineton.
1936 – Fedden Trial – ?? November 1936
YouTube Link – Tramps Paradise and Hodgecombe
YouTube Link – Nailsworth Ladder
YouTube Link – Old Hollow
YouTube Link – Middle Drag
YouTubeLink – All four sections (better quality)
Although I’d had a VHS copy of this Fedden Trial movie for some months, we must all thank Pete Hart for actually capturing a digital copy and uploading it to YouTube, albeit broken-up into four clips to get each one under the YouTube 80Mb file size limit. It’s actually only a small part of a much longer Bristol Motor Club video which includes movie of hill climbs and rallies in the Bristol area in the late 1930s.
I’ll try and identify some of the cars and drivers from the (better quality) VHS copy over time. The clips are worth watching all the way through – although there are a lot of very similar-looking MGs – for some of the shots of the spectators, very evocative of trialling nearly 80 years ago.
1937 – Ford 8 Promotional film
[08.46] – Bwlch y Groes.
[12.28] – Jenkin Chapel.
[12.45] – Rosedale Chimney.
[12.54] – Park Rash.
1939 – Austin 8 Introduction movie
The route status (A road, B road, Yellow, Bridleway, etc.) is taken from the OS Landranger 2015 maps. The directions (north, east, etc.) are as taken by the Austin on the route. It’s fascinating, but sad, to note that a significant number of these roads, tackled by a perfectly ordinary family car in 1939, are now Bridleways and thus banned to motor vehicles.
[1.11] – Garburn Road (Pass) starts at NY 454045 and heads west on a Bridleway. The “hairpin bends” can be seen clearly on Google Maps and are around NY 442046.
[2.00] – Kirkstone Pass summit is at NY 402082 on the A592. They are heading north and descending the steeper side of the Pass.
[3.22] – Ashness Bridge is at NY 270197 on a Yellow. They are heading south.
[3.36] – Watendlath is at NY 276164. They then head south west on a Bridleway.
[4.47] – The bridge at Grange is at NY 254175. They then head south on a bridleway passing Castle Crag.
[5.54] – Around NY 245152?
[6.20] – The summit of Honister Pass is at NY 225136 on the B5289. They are heading west.
[7.00] – Newslands Hause starts at NY 176170 and heads north east on a Yellow. A significant part of the route, after this, is not shown on the film. Whinlatter Pass is on the B5292 west of Braithwaite.
[7.30] – Red Bank is at NY 340055 on a Yellow. They are heading south.
[8.12] – The climb starts at NY 285059 and heads south on a Yellow to Bleatarn.
[8.57] – Wrynose Pass starts at NY 300032 and heads west on a Yellow.
[10.23] – Hardknott Pass summit is at NY 232015 on a Yellow. They start their climb at NY 246017 and go over and back to tackle it in both directions.
[12.15] – They are heading south from NY 246017 on a Yellow.
[12.25] – Walna Scar (Road) starts at NY 240968 and heads east on a (very long) BOAT.
[13.37] – The climb to Tarn Hows starts at SD 319984 and heads north on a Yellow.
[13:52] – This climb to Kirkstone Pass starts at NY 380047 and heads north east on a Yellow.
[14.33] – Garburn Road (Pass) starts around NY 417030 and heads east on a Bridleway.
1947 – Rushmere Speed Trials – ?? July 1947
Note from Simon Woodall:
Although the Rushmere event is not a trial, it does rate a full page of “More Wheelspin” and is therefore of note to the cognoscenti. Then, of course, there are the sun glasses [2:03] – a wow in their own right, but being worn by Margaret Woodall, long time signer-off at MCC events and the first lady to win a Triple Award.
1948 – MCC Sporting Trial – 23 October 1948
With thanks to Pete Hart for posting this. This is my best guess of the locations not identified. All comments welcome.
[0.05] – Any ideas?
[0.21] – Litton Slack.
1948 – High Peak Trial – 24 October 1948
With thanks to Pete Hart for posting this. This is my best guess of the locations not identified. All comments welcome.
[0.01] – Any ideas?
[0.21] – Abney Azard?
[0.34] – Any ideas?
[0.50] – Any ideas? Wolfscote?
[1.03] – Any ideas?
[1.31 to end] – Cow Low (from various points).
1948 – Gloucester Trial – 4 December 1948
This wonderful clip of the Gloucester Trial appeared on You Tube early in September 2007 and generated a lot of interest on the Classical Gas Message Board before Peter Seabrook-Harris made this posting:
“Well chaps I can take credit for this clip and fill in a few gaps as the story is amazing. In the mid 1980s my brother in law (who knows sod all about cars so a Morgan could be a MG etc) told me he’d been off sick and just happened to mention he’d seen a kids programme (Windmill) which featured some funny cars like mine – an early Dellow CAB 282. I got hold of a copy via the back door and sure enough it was this clip of the 48 Gloucester Trial.
Better still it features my Dellow prototype (no 3) CAB 282, an early Austin 7 chassis car owned by Lewis Tracey who later partnered his great rival Ken Rawlings of Buttercup fame on a Monte Carlo rally in a Standard Vanguard. This is the car in the early sequence seen driving away. Other Dellows are Mick Heighway (OP 3834), who was Ron Lowe’s (The Low bit of Dellow) dentist, and Eric Penn in a beautifully bodied HAB 245 Dellow and EDE 384 another important car.
CAB & EDE still happily survive! Sadly though this clip came from a whole bunch of 16mm which was consigned to landfill by the BBC apparently and was only saved as random clips to provide some representative material – probably because it featured Kenneth Horne?”
Simon Woodall also contributed the following:
“You might spot also that the “extraordinary car” climbing Ham Mill, and later the 2nd Allard on Nailsworth, is the Geof Imhof car KLD 5 now owned by Roger Ugalde. You can see from this car why the 1/3rd overhang rule was introduced. Roger Ugalde assures me that you can still see the weld marks on the chassis where this extension was added.
The car leaving the start just after the starter has been introduced is the Onslow-Bartlett Mercury Special. The second car attempting Juniper is Ron Lowe in his pre-Dellow special and, to fill in the Dellow link, the Frazer-Nash BMW EMO 174 on Hodgecombe is Ken Dellingpole.”
The only information that I can add about the cars is to point out that the Onslow-Bartlett Mercury Special also features as a picture in “More Wheelspin” – it was clearly one of the more memorable specials of the immediate Post War period.
As regards the four sections featured: Ham Mill looks virtually unchanged today, both in the middle section and at the top; you can, of course, read more about Juniper in the Classic Sections pages of this website although I realise that I will need to re-write the Post War History section now that we know it was used for the 1948 Gloucester trial; Hodgecombe continued in use on the route of the Cotswold Clouds into the 1980s but has been “abandoned” for many years and is now designated as a bridleway – if you compete on the modern Cotswold Clouds Trial you pass the top of Hodgecombe, on the right-hand side of the road, immediately after exiting the Crawley section; and it’s interesting to note the start to Nailsworth Ladder – approached from the Nailsworth direction (on the wrong side of the road!) with a “180 left” following by the sharp “90 right” into the section proper.
1948 – Hagley Winter Trial – 5 December 1948
Simon Woodall posted this video clip on You Tube and has also contributed most of the following, to which I’ve added a few comments of my own:
[0:05] The start is from the Falcon Hotel in Bridgnorth, which still exists.
[0:20] The main excitement of this piece is that we see the famous Ford V8 Special, FPD673, of Austen May and …
[0:27] The first of two close ups of the great man himself.
[0:31] The chap wandering around the start is Geoff Taylor, after whom HDLCC’s sporting trial is now named.
[1:02] The first of a number of shots of Victor Woodall’s Wolseley Ford special, which also features on the Kineton page of this website. (AKB)
[1:24] Ignore the Jeep, that’s just the photographer who had a Hitchcockian desire to always appear in his own films.
[1:39 onwards] Notice the use of a simple grass slope, with score markers.
[2:26] That Jeep again!
[4:40] The bloke in the long bobble hat at the top of the acceleration test is, I think, Ken Rawlings.
[6:24] “Wheel” is just off the Wolverhampton to Bridgnorth road.
[6:45] The second of the two close ups of Austen May.
[6:56] HAB 245 – One of the very early Dellow prototypes, I think. (AKB)
[6:57] Spot the Series 1 Land-Rover, bearing in mind that this is 1948 – so that’s a brand new car!
1949 – Allen Trial – 1 May 1949
With thanks to Pete Hart for posting this. This is my best guess of the locations not identified. All comments welcome.
[0.04] – Any ideas? Burledge maybe?
[1.19 to end] – Any ideas?
1950 – Full Moon Trial – 11 February 1950
With thanks to Pete Hart for posting this. All comments welcome.
1950 – West of England Trial – 5 March 1950
Thanks, once again, to Pete Hart for posting (April 2016) this video, which generated lots of debate on the Classic Trials Facebook Group. The video starts off at Simms but the remaining sections are, as yet (14 April 2016), unidentified.
1950 – Fedden Trial – 25 November 1950
With thanks to Pete Hart for posting this. This is my best guess of the locations not identified. All comments welcome – As we have a route card for this event, and a report in the Motor magazine, I think we should be able to sort-out the hills with a bit of detailed local knowledge.
[0.59] – Shrub Hill (most likely), or Raizes, or both mixed-up? – based on the report in the Motor magazine.
[3.35] – Green Lane if the video is in order, or maybe Widden if not?
[4.05] – Any ideas?
[5.21] – Watch the spectators scatter as Onslow-Barlett’s JAP rear-engined special makes a “spirited” ascent.
1950 – Clee Hills Trial – 3 December 1950
Simon Woodall posted this video clip on You Tube and has also contributed the following:
The featured section is Meadowley, which has been used for every Clee Hills Trial since I restarted the event back in 1980. In 1950, the start line was on the tarmac road although the current start line, which is off the tarmac road, is recognisable. JNP400 [0:30] is, of course, the works development Dellow. The lady jumping up and down towards the end is the photographer’s wife.
Simon also comments on the difference in performance between the big Allard and the small Ford 10-based cars. On re-watching the video I’m not so sure about that as it seems, to me, that there are good and bad performances from both the large-engined and small-engined cars.
There has been a suggestion that this was the H & DLCC (Hagley & District Light Car Club) Shropshire Trial, and not the Clee Hills Trial, but Simon cannot confirm either way.
1951 – Fedden Trial – 24 November 1951
Page updated : 4 January 2022 (in draft)