8/9/10th July 2011
Moored at Alvecote.
The weekend was not really a boatie types event, there were around 35 Historic Working Boats moored in the Marina and a couple more outside but only about 12 modern boats, most of the people around on Saturday were there for the pub.
Sunday was the main day with the Alvecote Summer Fair scheduled to start at noon, stalls were being set up in the car park from 9 am with charity stalls and childrens rides, the forecasted rain stayed away and by 2 o'clock the fair was packed, there was a small display of old Motorcycles in one corner of the car park and the Cheeseboat was doing a roaring trade.
A 1960 B.S.A.
We ate in the Samuel Barlow pub twice over the weekend, the chef Paul, an Australian spends as much time out with the customers chatting and making sure everything is ok as he does cooking ( or supervising the staff ), the food was excellent, no menu's as everything is on the blackboard, the drinks prices are reasonable as well, the pub is quite small, one room down stairs and a function room upstairs, all with full disabled access, you eat downstairs in the bar area, unusually dogs are allowed in but we don't find that a problem as a well behaved dog is infinitely preferable to a badly behaved small human.
Del Boy has fallen on hard times.
I went for a short walk on Sunday morning and found this well known van, three wheel Reliants used to be made in Tamworth.
The factory was at Fazeley on the old A5, you could smell the Glass Fibre as you went past the place ( Reliants had Glass Fibre Bodies ) they also made a couple of four wheeled model's, but I think they are remembered for the Three wheelers. The factory has now been replaced by a housing estate.
The factory was at Fazeley on the old A5, you could smell the Glass Fibre as you went past the place ( Reliants had Glass Fibre Bodies ) they also made a couple of four wheeled model's, but I think they are remembered for the Three wheelers. The factory has now been replaced by a housing estate.
One reason behind the Three wheel configuration and lightweight body was to keep it below a certain weight, (8 Hundredweight I think) so that it could be driven on a Motorcycle licence and pay lower road tax, but if you did drive it on a Motorcycle Licence reverse gear had to be blanked off, it sounds mad now but things like that were normal in the fifties and sixties.
So that's the weekend over, tomorrow afternoon we will arrive back in Kings Bromley Marina for a two week stay.
So that's the weekend over, tomorrow afternoon we will arrive back in Kings Bromley Marina for a two week stay.
1 comment:
I remember once watching the fire brigade extinguishing the fire on a blazing Reliant Robin in a Sheffield street. When the owner returned he was told his car had caught fire. "Where is it, then" he asked. The fireman pointed to a small heap of smouldering glass-fibre and a few bits of twisted metal that his mate was just sweeping-up with a broom!
Jim (Starcross)
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