Salopian Drivers on Tour in Yorkshire

The Salopian Drivers Club made up of parents and Old Salopian car enthusiasts enjoyed some excellent weather on their northern tour. Miles Preston writes:

How often can one sit out late into the evening enjoying a leisurely meal in Yorkshire (or indeed anywhere in the UK) before the end of May. Not often, is the answer, but that is precisely what we did on the eve of this year’s Yorkshire tour.

Michel and Annalie Vanhoonacker (former Shrewsbury parents) very kindly, and generously, hosted us at their home just to the north of the Humber Bridge.

Those taking part had come from disparate places including Surrey, Shropshire, Cheshire, Ayrshire and Estonia. There were eighteen of us taking part in the tour, in eight cars (it should have been nine but Paul Taylor’s newly restored Jaguar Mk 11 managed to shed a wheel about twenty yards from Michel and Annalie’s home).

Over the course of the morning we covered about seventy miles visiting, inter alia, Bridlington, Filey (what a magnificent beach there is there) and Scarborough. We broke for lunch at the lighthouse at Flamborough Head.

The drive in the afternoon was about thirty miles and led us to the very attractive location, Robin Hood’s Bay where we all stayed at the Victoria Hotel which was perfect for our needs including having enough (just) room to park our cars.

Sunday dawned lovely again and we headed south east to Beverley. We had a minor moment climbing the incredibly steep hill out of the town when Patrick and Susan Russell-Jones’s 1939 Convertible Citroen, decided that this was one degree of elevation too much. 

All was resolved by us all returning down the hill and leaving by a less vertiginous route.

On the Sunday morning we also found a few minutes to visit the Mathewsons auction house of ‘Bangers and Cash’ fame at Thornton Dale. The amount of free publicity that firm must have got over last few years is incalculable.

We arrived in Beverley slightly behind schedule but our host Eddie Scot, the winner of Master Chef 2022, was unfazed and he and his staff looked after us brilliantly at his bistro ,L’Opaline, located about fifty yards from the famous Minster. 

Huge thanks go to Michel and Annalie for organising this, their fourth SDC Yorkshire tour, and to Chris and Liz Kettle who did the reconnaissance work and prepared the incredibly detailed route plan. Thanks also go to everyone else who came on the tour for your excellent company and good humour.

Miles Preston

If you would like to join the Salopian Drivers Club please go to the website Salopian Drivers Club