This was to be a hard day on the road. We planned to go half way to Canterbury today, so we were off to Surrey. We were told that the drive from Malvern to Canterbury would take 5 hours, and had learned over the past 7 days, that 5 hours of their travel translates to 10 hours of travel for us. (As Churchill noted, Americans and the British are two peoples separated by a common language).The day’s route required an hour on the M25, London’s orbit. This is like the San Diego Freeway in a circle and it is not Morgan friendly, at least not for a 1958 Drophead Coupe filled with luggage. But, Brookland was on our route.
It was sad to see the old track in disrepair as Brookland is the birthplace of British auto racing, and aviation. It’s the place where HFS Morgan set the many records in his little three wheelers, and the place where the big Bentleys use to roar. Hugh Locke King built England’s first auto racetrack here in 1907. The center of the 2.7-mile oval was England’s first airstrip. Sadly, years of neglect and German bombs destroyed the old track. In 1987 the Brookland Trust was established and the old buildings were turned into a museum.
We stayed in an old Surrey farmhouse that sits on a 2.5-acre farm just outside of London. The house was built in 1532, and it has a sort of family clutter that makes you feel immediately at home. There is a big log fireplace in the living room, a stone-flagged dinning room, and snug little study. The old rooms had massive wood beams. Unfortunately people of England in the 1500s were only 5 foot tall. So the beams were as much a dangerous obstacle as a charming attraction.
DAY 8
Mog 2000Now, on the seventh day God rested, and, after traveling Southern England, it was our time to rest. We arrived in Canterbury on Thursday, and you could almost hear Squeaky panting as we parked her at the University of Kent parking lot. I was exhausted, like I would never have been after 700 mile of US roads. We took the next 24 hours to catch up, to get reorganized, to do laundry, and to slowly get to meet our new English Mog friends. At midday, only a handful of Morgans gathered in the college parking lot. By late that night the lot overflowed with roadsters into a smaller parking lot, the next morning a second lot was filled with Morgans, and then a third, still more came. By Friday noon, there were Morgans everywhere until more than 760 cars took over the campus, and still more came.
Many of the cars were brand new, 15 cars had been first registered in 2000. But there were many older cars too, such as John and Christa
Kenward’s beautiful yellow 1934 three-wheeler. Brian and Amanda Smith had their 1936 4/4, thought to be the third oldest 4 wheeler in the UK. The Camerons had their 1966 +4 Super Sports four seater, George Day drove up in his red +4+, and my favorite, a black 1948 Drophead Coupe flat rad, was fitted with a chrome cowl.