Top Gear and Droitwich

We went to Top Gear Live this weekend in Birmingham - though this blog will be more about 'places to stay' than about cars. Car enthusiasts will wonder and never understand how a vivid imagination is required for a non-car enthusiast to spend 8 hours in a hall full of cars and still smile at the end of it. While wandering around with the crowd Harry and I managed to get separated and as Harry didn’t need me to have a good time I found some things to entertain me which didn't involve looking under a bonnet - including a live show of two television celebrities who I had never heard of building a car in six hours, interviews with the Chief Executive of a Classic Car Magazine and the R2D2 (actor inside the robot)...
So, onto places to stay - the story really began on Saturday morning.  We had booked our hotel in Droitwich not far from the convention centre (huge by the way). Not far from the hotel was a magnificent building sitting on a hill - I did wonder if we had taken a detour and somehow ended up in France (dreams are free!!). The Chateau Impney was built in 1875 by John Corbett – he was known as the Salt King as Worcester is salt country. The Chateau was a present to his wife – I think she was previously a French governess. Apparently they fell in love and must have wandered around Versailles at some stage during their courtship - all dreamy eyed and lovey dovey - but out of the corner of his eye he was thinking of his 'gift' to be modelled on the Versaille buildings. The Chateau was built by over 3000 workmen who also landscaped the property – the big drive up to the chateau gives it quite a prominence.  It is a hotel now, and I thought it would be really expensive to spend a night there (we would have proudly parked our little Saxo amongst the Jags, Mercedes and BMWs). I have informed Harry that when he next ‘owes me’ (remember the time when we were going biking and ended up an air show – another one of those times!) we could go and stay at the Chateau. Only £79.90 for the two of us and cheaper than a microlight flight. Not sure what the meals cost but we could skip to the Robin Hood down the road (we enjoyed a very nice meal there on Saturday night) and we wouldn't have to take our own breakfast because that is included in the price.

In Droitwich itself is another rather large hotel "The Raven Hotel" (it is mainly timber framed but has a new entrance that does not quite fit with the rest of the building) as it takes up a few blocks, is built in the tudor style and inside (yes we did wander through this one as there was no doorman guarding the back entrance to stop waifs and strays from looking) the interior was dark wood panelling (oak at a guess) and lots of leather bound couches and chairs holding people who were sipping drinks and tea and chatting to their friends. There was a table with those ‘nice’ afternoon teas you can buy with little finger size cucumber and ham sandwiches, cup cakes, scones and cream etc and a very nicely presented dining room. Some parts of the hotel are a bit older and date back to the late 1100’s. I think it might be cheaper to stay here than at the Chateau - but it would be the second option for me.

And the last place to stay if the other two didn’t take my fancy (which of course they did) was the little caravan in the classic motor show that is now a barbers and tattooist – it was so cute and has such a history. This one was built in late 1920s, designed and created by Wally Byam – whom I had never heard of before. He sold ‘ready to assemble’ kits in the early 1920's and started off with building them in his back yard in LA.  The business actually survived the crash of 1929 (presumably cheap homes might have become a favourite of those that felt the crash and it meant you could say goodbye to the neighbours if you wanted to).  Wally gave up his advertising, and publishing to become a full-time builder of travel trailers. He was quite a clever cookie as he used aircraft construction methods to lessen wind resistance and improve the trailer's strength-to-weight ratio.  In 1936 they were described as having a aerodynamic and contemporary look.  In 1936 the "Clipper" was born. It could sleep four, thanks to its dinette which could convert to a bed. It carried its own water supply, had an enclosed galley, and was fitted with electric lights throughout. The Clipper boasted advanced insulation and a ventilation system, and even offered "air conditioning" that used dry ice. A bit more than $5 for this masterpiece as they were now selling for $1200 (alot of money in those days). They got lots of business even throughout the depression. During World War II the company closed down due to lack of demand but after the war Wally reopened his company.  In America they think that the "Clipper" is as famous as the Coca-Cola bottle and to the Zippo lighter.  Now you can join the Wally Byam Caravaners if you so wish and travel around with others pulling the same magnificent holiday home. I quite liked the sound of Wally Byam - some of his quotes about the caravan and caravanning - makes me want to buy one and get out there:

•  "Don’t stop. Keep right on going. Hitch up your trailer and go to Canada or down to Old Mexico. Head for Europe, if you can afford it, or go to the Mardi Gras. Go someplace you’ve heard about, where you can fish or hunt or collect rocks or just look up at the sky. Find out what’s at the end of some country road. Go see what’s over the next hill, and the one after that, and the one after that."
• "To lead caravans wherever the four winds blow... over twinkling boulevards, across trackless deserts... to the traveled and untraveled corners of the earth".
• "To play some part in promoting international goodwill and understanding among the peoples of the world through person-to-person contact".
• "To strive endlessly to stir the venturesome spirit that moves you to follow a rainbow to its end... and thus make your travel dreams come true".
• "To place the great wide world at your doorstep for you who yearn to travel with all the comforts of home".
• "To provide a more satisfying, meaningful way of travel that offers complete travel independence, wherever and whenever you choose to go or stay".

That was my trip to the car show and now about Harry’s.  Harry enjoyed wandering around the five exhibition halls.  He spent ages looking at the Rover gas turbine car - great piece of technology - and an engine that should normally take you into the skies rather than along the roads.  He was much more enthusiastic about the Top Gear show than me and he would enjoyed having a ride in one of the stunt cars.

We also wandered around Droitwich in the rain before taking off to Birmingham.  This was one of the areas badly flooded a couple of years ago but you could see no signs of it now - although apparently many of the shops weren’t opened until a year later.  It wasn't really the 'wandering around' weather and so we ended up going to the National Exhibition Centre a bit earlier than intended (which in retrospect Harry was very pleased about).  I certainly wasn't quite prepared for the 20 interconnected halls, set in grounds of 628 acres and it was a long long way from the car park to the hall.
The Top Gear Show was quite fun - full of lights, noise, friendly banter and unique auto competitions and stunts.  The show is coming to New Zealand in the new year - one stop in a global trot.

And on Sunday we had a leisurely drive along A-roads to Northampton to see Mike and Barbara and to plan our New Year trip. On the way we past through Feckenham (I had seen on the web the notice ‘What happens in Feckenham? Not a lot and that is how we like it’. So I suggested that we went and saw what ‘not a lot’ looks like. There were some houses, some cars but nothing moved (no humans, dogs, cats, birds, foxes or squirrels and only one car that looked like it was passing through like us) – so now we know what 'not a lot' looks like and won't be going back again which I suspect is just what the locals wanted.
And just to finish off with an interesting fact for this week.  There are still  28,000 black and white televisions being regularly used in England.  You still have to buy a licence over here which is how they know.  It is only £48 for a black and white licence but £142.50 for a colour. Colour didn't arrive in England until the late 1960s but if you know where to look you can still buy a black and white one if you want. I could find no statistics on how many monochrome televisions there are in New Zealand except that the first tv arrived in New Zealand in June 1960.  You could watch 3 hours a day if you lived in Auckland and until 1962 if you lived in the South Island - quite surprising since Britain had tv since 1936.  Now a trip down memory lane - do you remember Lassie, I Love Lucy, Danger Man, Perry Mason, Dr Kildare, Wagon Train, Perry Mason and The Flintstones.

Harry got very excited when he found out that the All Whites qualified for the World Cup.