Tyntesfield April 2011
A great turn-out joined by associated clubs –
For this year’s Season opener, South Western chose
the relatively newly-opened National Trust’s Tyntesfield House and
Estate just south west of Bristol.
We also decided to start the season working to forge more regular
relationships with other like-minded clubs active in our area and,
especially, those invited to join us for the forthcoming Prescott
Weekend (30-31 July!).
Tony Alden – the main man for the day – managed to get agreement from the NT to display the cars directly in front of the mansion rather than simply parking with the other visitors for the day. It was especially pleasing to see that the NT had mentioned the event on their Tyntesfield website events page, so hopefully the public would know we were due to be there.
Cars arrived both in convoy and singly, and began to fill up the parking area in front of the house – indeed, a fair bit of ‘shuffling’ was needed to fit everyone in and even then, cars were parked along the final drive up to the house! A strong group from the Cotswolds Classic Car Club arrived with a really nice mixed-marque group, with everything from A35 to Zephyr! The Aston Martin Owner’s Club had a couple of very presentable DB5s, Mark Grimshaw’s Alfa Romeo Owner’s Club ‘Cotswold Section’ joined us with an Alfa Spider and a Bertone Coupe and, finally, some 35 or so Healeys of various types from the AHC! So, a great turn-out with plenty for everyone to see. As someone overheard one of the members of public commenting: “oh, this will keep him happy, he wasn’t expecting the cars to be here’!
It was a great day, with perfect weather (a few ‘pink’ Healey owners on Monday perhaps??) in a lovely setting and with a great turn-out of Healeys and other classics: a very peasant and pleasing start to the season, and very definitely: “Enjoying the marque”.