BMPA History

2000 Autumn Meeting, September 1-3, Cambridge

50 members and their guests attended the meeting, based at Downing College, Cambridge.

Friday 1st September

Arrivals, drinks and fork buffet in the Howard common room.

Saturday 2nd September

Morning visits to either Audley End (airfield and Historic Flying Ltd. hangar - ancient aeroplane restoration) or Great Dunmow (P&A Wood's showroom and workshops where Rolls Royce cars and sold and restored). Lunch at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford with time to explore the museum afterwards. AGM in the Howard building lecture theatre followed by the annual dinner.

Sunday 3rd September

Guided tour of the horse racing scene in the Newmarket area followeed by coffee, a tour and lunch at the National Racing School stables.

Report

Downing College is an unlikely collection of quintessentially Cotswold classical architecture in the middle of the fens. That is the stones are mellow, light, lime or sand stone with thin jointing put together in classical styles. The rooms we used were typically modern college, grouped around common kitchenettes with en suite bathrooms and unlike some of its contemporaries maintained and furnished to a high standard. The extensive lawns, mature trees and freshly brushed gravel with motor cars banished to out of sight parks gave the impression of space and quiet contemplation necessary for the proper enjoyment of good food, well matched wines and excellent company. The weather wasn't bad either! As a focal point we had the sole use of the Howard Building, a separate venue with lounge and bar on the ground floor and lecture theatre above stairs.

Meals were in Hall and on Friday evening started as they meant to go on with a hot fork buffet supper (the hot describes the food not the fork) of more than satisfactory variety and quantity followed by retreat to the Howard Building for more drinks and conversation.

Saturday morning produced a choice of outings, one to Audley End to see Spitfire restoration and the other to Great Dunmow to view Rolls Royce cars of all ages and conditions.

The Audley End airfield is not connected with the adjacent stately home. The field and workshops are the hobby of one of the biggest makers of car exhaust systems in Europe, so next time you pay for one, offset the cost with the notion that you are subsidising a most worthwhile enterprise. On arrival we were met by the workshop chief. He took us through the stages of a restoration bit by bit, starting with the acquisition of a project. They come from diverse sources - often gate guardians here and abroad, but also found abandoned in other sites, restoration then being commissioned by the new owner. Each one is dismantled either to small sub assemblies but more often to individual pieces of metal for cleaning, inspection, reassembly and repriming. One surprise was the excellent condition of much of the aluminium which had been fashioned and mass assembled with a life expectancy measured in weeks rather than decades and then woefully neglected for many of those decades. Missing pieces are built from scratch to pattern or drawings and completed assemblies stored until the makings of the whole aircraft come together again. Merlin engines, having been used in many other aircraft, some boats and a few other ground based machines come from a wide variety of sources, often the US of A. The basic airframe design was so much developed and modified that most projects are individual and there is now little interchangeability of parts. It was great to see enthusiasts of that calibre working for the love of the job without a clock in sight. The cost? Think in 7 figures once you have delivered your wreck!

[Stephen Gibson reviews the trip to Great Dunmow below.]

When our tours were over we took coach for the Imperial War Museum at Duxford and made our individual ways to lunch and round the artefacts which as always were well demonstrated and described. There is a new Army vehicle hall for those for whom aircraft are not enough, and some flying going on to add a touch of authenticity to the static exhibits. Members filtered back to Downing by a variety of transports to tea and biscuits in the Howard building before the Annual General Meeting.

After the A.G.M., the day was rounded off by a Gala Dinner in Hall and general chat, relaxation, and dare one say, more drinking in the Howard Building.

Sunday morning was devoted to a tour of Newmarket its environs and the National Racing School and even a visit to some horses. To most of us this was an eye opener. Newmarket is a self sufficient, in parts extremely affluent, apparently self (the Jockey Club) governing community. We started with coffee at the National Racing School, a new building with every modern teaching aid. It trains Jockeys rather than horses, getting successful students a NVQ. They are therefore financeable by local authorities. The course covers all aspects of horse management so that even if graduates fail to ride a Grand National winner, they have a chance of finding work somewhere in the industry - for let there be no doubt a massive industry it is. Our two guides, sisters with an encyclopaedic knowledge of that industry, used the lecture theatre to brief us and then gave a running commentary on the sights, sounds and even the private lives of some of the personalities of the district. Being a Sunday there was little horse training activity but at one point we saw hare coursing in full cry. (another example of self governance?) The visit was rounded off with an excellent roast lunch at the National Racing School after which we returned to Downing, dropping air borne members off at Marshall's (airfield) on the way.

Andrew Clymo

Great Dunmow trip

P & A Wood, welcomed BMPA members, family and friends with coffee in a well appointed waiting area with magazines, prints and pictures of Old Rolls Royce and Bentley cars. The telephone there with accompanying notice inviting its use came into its own later in permitting co-ordination of the coaches to the Duxford Museum. This attention to comfort and no-expense-spared detail continued to be evident throughout our trip. Our knowledgeable and enthusiastic host, one of the two founder/owner brothers, let slip that to achieve all the space, workshops and showroom which so amazed us had involved selling a much loved aircraft at one stage to fund this expansion of the first love: the restoration of older and Vintage Rolls Royce cars.

We saw and discussed in intimate detail restoration at all stages, from metal and wooden chassis and bodywork components, beautiful paintwork and upholstery to finished unique cars. The time, care, skill and experience involved were immense and impressive. I would have no hesitation in turning to the Woods if ever I had a Rolls or Bentley needing care, and indeed at the end of our trip we were amazed and even tempted by the surprisingly manageable price of some of the more modern used cars. (explained by the running and service costs thereafter perhaps). However there were also unique exemplars of the earliest and rarest cars where working in medicine or surgery would never of itself pay well enough, even were they to be for sale. Some cars had come across the world to be worked on.

I recall one amazing hangar sized room full of perhaps 40 very special cars. Restorations could take years, with archival research leading to individually made parts often followed by special testing and adjustment apparatus, for example for the shock absorbers/Springs. The greatest affection was for the older cars, when the RR lead over the rest of the automotive world was least challenged, but we saw the very latest also. RR Merlin Aero engine restoration/ rebuilding was also in progress.

My two regrets are that we did not have had longer there, and that we were not able to welcome our host to join us at the BMPA gala Dinner later.

Lunch, Duxford for some and Cambridge shops for others called us away. If you missed out and have the opportunity, try and visit by prior arrangement as below:

P & A Wood, of Great Easton, Dunmow, Essex. CM6 2HD Tel: 01371 870848 Fax: 01371 870810 Contact: Andrew Wood.

Stephen Gibson