North Yorkshire Run - Sunday 3rd November 2002

Local member Dave Watchman from Redcar wanted to organise an event in the North East, and came up with a run around the beautiful and colourful North Yorkshire moors and coastal towns, see Dave's report below the photographs.

From left to right. Paul Woods / Becky Woods( from 9th November 2002) / Michael Sheavills / Joanne Thom / Mike Johnson / Dave Watchman / Viv Allison

The days organiser Dave Watchman, this car will soon be converted to the MK1 Karmeleon

We all met here on the Yorkshire Moors

Mike and Viv prepare for the tight and twisty roads of Goatland and Whitby. Note the model MR2's on the dash, nice

Paul and Becky in their MK2 for the last time as his MK1 240bhp turbo conversion will be ready for the next meeting. What has Paul got on his keyring?

Michael Sheavills sets off at high speed

The lasses contemplating the trip, Viv, Becky and '' little Jo ''

The cars

First stop was Goatland, the village where they film the programme Heartbeat. This is the famous ''Scripps Garage''

The Aidensfield Arms

The famous railway at Aidensfield, also used in the Harry Potter films

Members walking through Goatland

Fish and Chip stop at Whitby. Legend has it that Dracula climbed the hill in the background from his wrecked ship and rested in the church on the top.

Paul almost choking after he realised his wedding is only 6 days away!!

Famous Whitby fish and chips are the best.

The real thing, we spotted this F355 in the car park at Whitby.

Couldn't resist it, sorry. We also spotted a nice red MK1 in the car park so I placed a club flyer under the wipers. Later that night a guy called Richy Martin from Hartlepool rang me to discuss joining the club.

Last stop was Saltburn, a small victorian coastal town famous for its pier.

Saltburn Pier.

We had 2 rare SUPERCHARGERS on the run, this one and Mike Johnsons grey tin-top.

North Yorkshire Run 2002

I had been itching to arrange an event since joining the club and was delighted when Michael gave me the opportunity to organise a run around my home area in the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire. An outstanding sunny and cloudless day greeted us on Sunday 3rd November as the cars set out from Birk Bank, an area of outstanding natural beauty, about an hour from the Church Mouse, our usual pub meeting venue. The run took in the scenic beauty of the North Yorkshire moors with the ragged north east coastline. Our first stop was Goathland, the home of the television series Heartbeat. This is an attractive moorland village where people actually live with very little disruption in between filming. The roads to Goathland are typical to those that you would expect to find on the North Yorkshire Moors, tight and twisty, over small bridges and through some very picture postcard villages with the local wildlife trying their best to avoid an encounter with our wheels. The stop in Goathland saw pictures taken of Scripps garage and in front of the Goathland Hotel, known in the series as the Aidensfield Arms. We couldn't leave without visiting the working railway, a station on George Stevenson's original railway line which terninates in Grosmont. As we left the town in convoy, a traditional steam engine typical of those in the 50's and 60's left the station and made us feel a part of the era. Our next stop was the historic coastal harbour and town of Whitby, which was extremely busy and full of very weird gothic looking people. History tells us this was the home of Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula which might explain why so many 'goths' descended on the town to celebrate Halloween. Although the town was busy it was of great interest. We toured the town, harbour, and walked the 199 steps up to the Parish Church which saw most of us out of breath and gasping for oxygen. All this exercise made us hungry and the obvious choice was fish and chips, you can't come to Whitby without sampling their fish and chips, lovely. Over lunch we discussed the marriage of members Paul and Becky and my Karmeleon conversion - to begin as soon as it is delivered - and the completion of Paul's amazing MK2 turbo 3SGTE engine swap. Finally as the winter sun began to set we moved onto Saltburn using the coastal road often used by the police for their advanced driver training school. This gave us a completely different drive from the morning with the sea lapping into the shores, some of our cars managed to get splashed by the salty sea water as we drove along the road at Sandsend just outside Whitby. At Saltburn we watched the surfers throwing themselves from the famous pier. Paul was obviously lost in the waves deep in thought over his engine conversion and the endless possibilities.

Dave Watchman