I am delighted to announce that the Cotswold Canals Trust will be joining us for the first time Pre-War Prescott this year on Saturday 13th June.

The Trust is the umbrella organization for restoring and maintaining the Cotswold canals.  This project is currently one of the largest heritage restorations of its kind anywhere in the U.K. as the Trust works to restore both the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames and Severn Canal that meet at the Sapperton tunnel near Cirencester.  At 3,718 yards (that’s well over two miles), the tunnel enables the canal to cut through the Cotswold escarpment and was the longest on the canal network at the time of cutting.  Combined, the two canals connect the River Thames at Inglesham, near at Lechlade with the River Severn at Saul, near Sharpness. 

The objective of the Trust is to re-open the entire navigation, including the Sapperton tunnel, which will be an enormous undertaking.  The total length to be restored is 36 miles and includes 44 locks.  Once open, the two canals will represent a major enhancement to the British canal network.

The Trust will be bringing their new Roadshow display to Prescott and we look forward to meeting the Trust’s team and learning more about this enormously challenging but hugely worthy project.

Those who took part in our Sunday run in 2018 will remember our lunch stop at the Tunnel House Inn situated spectacularly at the southern portal of the Sapperton tunnel.  The Inn was originally built to house the navvies who dug the tunnel and those who legged the boats through the tunnel.

The canal was one of the favourites of L. T. C. Rolt, who wrote in his richly descriptive style in Narrow Boat in 1944:

‘There is something indescribably forlorn about these abandoned waterways; like old ruined houses or silent mills, they are haunted by the bygone life and toil which has left its deathless, eloquent mark upon them.  Just as in old houses the worn steps are the memorial of many vanished feet, so on the canals it is the grooves worn by the towing-lines in the rotting lockbeams or the crumbling brickwork of bridges that bring the past to life.
Most beautiful and most tragic of all is the old Thames and Severn Canal, climbing up the Golden Valley between great hills that wear their beechwoods like a mane.  At the summit at Sapperton it pierces the spine of the Cotswold scarp by a tunnel two and a quarter miles in length, and thereafter winds cross the open wolds to join the young Thames at Inlgesham above Lechlade.  At Daneway, a tiny village clinging to the steep slope by the western portal of the tunnel, there is an old inn of Cotswold stone where they still remember the boats.  The wide windows under their carved drip-stones have seen them moored in what is now a grassy hollow, and they have watched the smoke of cabin fires soar upwards on still evenings against the dark background of the hanging beechwoods.  The ‘Flower of Gloster’ was one of the last boats to travel from the Severn to the Thames by this route, and I shall never cease to envy Mr. Temple Thurston his good fortune.  Perhaps it is because I have a particular regard for the Cotswold country that I regret most the passing of this, the only Cotswold canal.’

Ian

You can enter Pre-War Prescott 2020 here.

With under six months to go to Pre-War Prescott, planning is already in top gear for what will be the Tenth Pre-War Prescott.  And the Vintage Minor Register, which hosts the event, will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary.  Last year’s Pre-War Prescott was an incredible weekend with nearly 300 pre-war, vintage and veteran cars gracing the Prescott Paddock, and with over 60 entries already received and processed, we are expecting another fabulous turnout.  All of the planning and preparation has had to be brought forward this year, as the weekend has been moved forward five weeks, to the weekend of 13th/14th June.  (This one-off change has been caused by calendar conflicts at Prescott, but we shall be returning to our traditional third weekend in July from 2021.)

This year we will also be celebrating the Centenary of the start of Alvis production and so we are expecting a very  strong Alvis presence, and there will be a celebratory Alvis cavalcade up the hill during the lunch break.

And of course, the weekend will include our hugely popular Sunday Navigation Rally and Scenic Tour which saw 90 entries last year.  This year’s route is already being planned and will take up westward towards the Malverns and Herefordshire.  And of course, there will be the traditional Friday evening informal pub reception, our hugely popular party at the Prescott Clubhouse on Saturday evening and our farewell pub run on Sunday evening.  As usual, camping will be available throughout the weekend in the Prescott Orchard.

Stop by here for further breaking news as the days count down to the best vintage weekend of the season!

 

 

Spirit of Pre-War Prescott 2019 – David Thomson and passenger in the Esses in his 1936 Talbot 105 Alpine and looking every inch the part.  (Hugh Miller)

After a truly spectacular Pre-War Prescott 2019, 2020 entries are now OPEN!  Save the date – Saturday 13th June (that’s JUNE, not July for 2020).  And of course the Navigation Rally and Scenic Tour will take place on Sunday 14th June and the weekend will include all of our traditional social evenings.

PWP 2020 will mark the tenth anniversary of Pre-War Prescott which has without doubt become the best-loved event of the vintage motoring season.  We will be marking other anniversaries over the weekend (of which more anon), but the over-arching theme for 2020 will be – what else?  The ROARING TWENTIES!

This year we received a capacity entry of over 250 pre-war cars and motorcycles, with many more arriving on the day.  In order to fairly distribute climbs, for 2020 the first 100 entrants will be able to book two climbs in addition to the free one that comes with every entry.  Once we reach 100 entries, then the next 75 entries will be able to book one additional climb.  Thereafter, only the free climb will be allocated, so if you are keen to climb the hallowed Prescott hill as many times as possible, we recommend entering early!

If you would like to be kept informed of PWP 2020 plans as they develop, please sign up for our newsletter on the home page.

And if you are planning to attend the weekend, may we recommend you make your accommodation reservations without delay as June is peak tourist season in the Cotswolds and all forms of accommodation become booked up very early.  Alternatively, camping will once again be available in the Orchard.

Some comments about PWP 2019:

It really is the friendliest meeting you could ever go to.  Brill!  We’re definitely going next year.  Ian Judd

Very nice contrast to competitive events.  Lovely just to have relaxing days out with friends.  Mark Dolton

A superb meeting, both Saturday and Sunday will live in the memory for some time.  Mike Entwisle

What a cracking day.  Definitely a case of the right crowd and no crowding.  Simon Johnston

 

 

With just five days to go to the big day at Prescott, everything is now in place.  We fly from Seattle tomorrow, arriving Heathrow early Wednesday morning and heading straight for the Cotswolds.

Apart from when we are in the air, I will be in e-mail contact (at vintageminor@gmail.com), and able to answer any late questions or requests.  All late entries so far have been ticketed and your tickets will be waiting for you at the gate on Saturday morning.  I can continue to handle late entries or requests for spectator tickets, etc. right up to Thursday night.

Latest numbers – 250 entries, 477 climbs, 160 BBQ, 26 nav rally, 65 scenic tour.  Impressive numbers!

We are really looking forward to the gathering at the Gardners Arms at Alderton on Friday evening.  All early arrivers for the weekend on Friday are warmly invited.

It is just seven days to Pre-War Prescott 2019!  And at 2-51 this morning, our trip to England could very well have come to a shuddering halt – quite literally!  We live about forty miles northeast of downtown Seattle in the foothills of the Cascade mountains.  At 2-21 this morning, we had a magnitude 4.6  earthquake that nearly threw us out of bed (and it DID throw the dog out of bed!).  It lasted for what seemed an age, but was no more than a few seconds, but the shaking was incredible and the noise was deafening.  It turned out that the epicentre was just 12 miles away and was 13 miles underground, so we were almost on top of it!  Fortunately, apart from frayed nerves, the only damage was power outages and a few cracks.  There was a 3.6 after shock two minutes later and about a dozen smaller ones in the following two hours.  Tried to go back to sleep – wasn’t going to happen!  Crikey, that was CLOSE!

We will be very glad to get to London next Wednesday in one piece!

 

 

 

Not the latest Pre-War Prescott entry, but the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, which passes within steam whistling distance of Prescott has announced that they will once again be bringing their very popular and informative display stand to Pre-War Prescott.  The GWR is one of the most active branch lines in the UK and they have restored and reopened around 14 miles of track operating between Cheltenham Racecourse and Broadway.  Do stop by on the day and say hello to the crew.

Two weeks this evening Jayne and I will be welcoming early arrivers at the historic Gardeners Arms at Alderton, just north of Prescott.  We will have spent the Friday afternoon at Prescott, preparing the Paddock and greeting campers as they arrive.  We’re expecting many of our overseas visitors to join us at the Gardeners as they will be arriving in the area on Friday.  And I can’t wait for my first pint of real English ale for a year!

If you are arriving in the area on Friday, do come along and join the gathering and kick off the weekend in style.

The Gardeners Arms is located in the Alderton village just off the B4077.  OS reference 998333.

This year, everyone who enters a pre-war car is receiving a very special raffle ticket.  We are assembling a list of mouthwatering prizes, including a Tiger Moth flight, dinner for two at a Michelin-starred restaurant and today we have added a climb up the hill in this stunning and very swift 1927 Type 37A Bugatti, courtesy of its owner and BOC President Charles Trevelyan.  Additional tickets will be on sale in the morning at the Vintage Minor Register marquee and from any of the Air Cadets in the Paddock.   The draw will take place in the lunch break, directly after the auction of donated spares and automobilia.  All of the funds raised by the raffle and the auction will be donated to the RAF Charitable Trust, our designated charity.  So please sort through your motor home and bring along any unwanted quality items for the auction and drop them off at the VMR Marquee in the morning.

The work level at PWP HQ USA is reaching fever pitch right now as entries continue to arrive and a zillion things and incoming e-mails and phone calls need to be sorted before we fly to London on the 16th (I had a call at 1-30 this morning from a chap in Swindon asking for tickets!  Poor chap didn’t realise he was calling Seatte!).  The latest entry today was an Alvis Speed 20, making a record entry of 20 pre-war Alvises so far.  We are currently at 248 entries and we’re receiving many spectator entries every day right now.  I will be posting the last tickets from Seattle tomorrow (I can’t today – its Independence day here!) and then all further ticketing will be handled by John Hicks in Gotherington who is holding plenty of spare tickets.  And as we count down to the day, we can STILL arrange last-minute advance tickets which will be enveloped nad waiting for you at the gate on Saturday morning.  Of course you can turn up on the day in your pre-war car and enter at the gate, but you won’t receive your free climb, your free Commemorative Programme (which I approved the print proof of this morning) or your free five pound raffle ticket.  The same is true for spectators.  You can enter online in advance for ten pounds per person or pay fifteen pounds on the gate.

I just ticketed Peter McFadyen, photographer for The Automobile and a friend of Pre-War Prescott, who will be penning a write-up about the day for the Magazine.

Climbs next.  Right now we have allocated 471 climbs which is slightly less than last year.  From experience we know that not everyone who enters uses their climb ticket or tickets – for a variety of reasons, so filling the hill with climbs is much more of an art than a science.  It also all depends on any delays due to stoppages, and last year we had no less than three stoppages caused by drivers’ GoPro cameras falling off their cars on the way up the hill, thereby wasting valuable climb slots.  Can I therefore ask anyone who is planning to bring along a camera to please avail themselves of a motorsport-grade mount.  We will be making checks at the start line.

And a reminder that everyone who intends to climb the hill – be they drivers or passengers – MUST attend a safety briefing where they will receive a wrist band.  These wrist bands will be checked by the start line marshals.  The first briefing will take place at 9-30 a.m. at the BOC office and further briefings will take place periodically throughout the day as required by demand.  The hill will open at 10 a.m. and we need to keep the start line marshals busy right from the start.

And the other really good news is that the weather forecast for the weekend is looking warm and dry!

Finally for this time, an important announcement about PWP 2020.  The date for the Isle of Man Manx TT has been changed for 2020 and this has had a knock-on effect down the motorsport calendar.  Long story short – we have had the date for PWP 2020 brought forward to Saturday 13th JUNE by the Bugatti Owners’ Club.  As a result, there will be five weeks less to plan and so entries will officially open at PWP 2019 where entry forms will be available at the Vintage Minor Register marquee.  Obviously the online entry form cannot be updated before this year’s event – I’ll do this when we return in early August, but if anyone would like an entry form now, just e-mail me at vintageminor@gmail.com and I will return a form to you as an attachment.

I’ll try to post news updates daily from here on in, so do stop by here regularly as they days count down.

As of today, we have five wondrous bikes entered for Pre-War Prescott, including this rare ‘oily rag’ 1937 Monet Goyon racing special.  In addition we have a 1903 Royal Sovereign, a 1919 Triumph Model H, a 1923 Raleigh and a 1939 BSA M23 Silver Star.  These will all add to the already wonderful variety of pre-war machinery in attendance.

Well, its the first of July and the final countdown begins!  The good news is that we are still accepting advance entries and spectators.  If you haven’t entered yet, you can enter right now at http://prewarprescott.com/?page_id=161.

And the other really good news is that the weather forecast for the weekend is looking really good!  This is also good news for the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and our Hawker Hurricane flypast.  Group Captain Mark Flewin will be displaying  PZ865 – the last Hawker Hurricane ever built.  Group Captain Flewin is the Station Commander of RAF Conningsby, the home of the Flight.  And he has graciously agreed to autograph two copies of James Holland’s definitive centenary history of the RAF – ‘RAF 100’ for us.  One copy will be awarded as one of the prizes in our lunchtime charity auction in aid of the RAF Charitable Trust and the other will be awarded to the Air Cadet who sells most raffle tickets in the morning!

One more thing for this morning.  As the date of Pre-War Prescott 2020 has had to come forward by five weeks to Saturday 13th June, entries will officially open at Pre-War Prescott this year.  If you would like to bank your entry for 2020, come along to the VMR marquee on the day where advance booking forms will be available.

 

 

We are still receiving enquiries as to whether spectators are permitted at Pre-War Prescott.  The answer is an emphatic yes!  Pre-War Prescott offers the perfect day out for spectators as there is so much to see and do throughout the day – not to mention the chance to have a ride up the hill in something very exciting!  There is all day catering, a licensed bar and picnics are also very welcome – in the Paddock, in the Orchard or on the hill.  The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Hawker Hurricane will join us overhead in the afternoon and there is even the chance to win a flight in a Tiger Moth in our raffle!

Spectator cars are parked in the Orchard, right beside the start line and spectators have full and free access to the Paddock, all of the displays and exhibitions and the trackside hill path up to the finishing line.  Advance spectator tickets are £10 per person (12’s and under are free) or £15 per person on the gate.  Parking, in the Orchard, is free.  You can book your spectator tickets at http://prewarprescott.com/?page_id=161