Austin Healey Club Northern Centre North East Weekend 2023

by Caroline Curran. Pictures by Laura Sinclair, Mike Stonier, Caroline Curran

is event always draws members from all the different centres within the club and 2023 was no different. The Northern Centre organising team welcomed 49 cars and their owners who comprised of 30 x Northern, 10 x Eastern, 3 x Southern Counties, 3 x Midlands I x Thames Valley, I x Southwest and I from the New Forest to our base for the weekend, the superb Blackwell Grange Hotel on the outskirts of Darlington.

The Blackwell Grange Hotel is a stunning 17th Century mansion, which enjoys an enviable setting in the beautiful County Durham countryside.

Friday saw everyone arriving in sunshine and we were able to sit outside chatting and catching up with old and new friends. The members arrived in suitable time and the weekend events were laid out, so we all know where we are meant to be and how we get there. Enough said on that. The tulip route books still catch a few out and the good old sat nav is an especially useful back up when the drivers and navigators start to get stressed.

Saturday’s run was to the Beamish Museum. The route took us through the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Beauty, the only problem being we could not see anything because of the dense mist. Also, up there, they really should paint the sheep bright orange as there were a couple of near misses as they blended into the mist.

Beamish was amazing and on our bucket list to return to. It is a world-famous open-air museum which brings the history of Northeast England to life at its 1820s Pockerley, 1900s Town, 1900s Pit Village, 1940s Farm, 1950s Town and 1950s Spain’s Field Farm exhibit areas. It also had a pub and a coal fired range in a chip shop which produced the tastiest fish and chips had in a long time. I think nearly all of us visited the chip shop to sample the food.

Sunday saw the group drive to Bowes House, a beautiful French-style public museum set in outstanding gardens and parkland. Bowes house has a superb collection of art and fashion and the owners kindly allowed up to line the cars up outside the house for photos.

Sunday night was the “smart casual gala dinner” with the usual Cornish raffle which raised a superb £760 for Cancer Research UK. The event always has a “mini concours” with the winners selected by all the attendees. The winners for 2023 were: -

We also had six new members with us on their first event. Tom and Gemma Askew and Oliver and Laura Sinclair plus Gary and Kath Austin. They joined in with great enthusiasm and even got roped into to help with the raffle and we hope to see them all on future events.

All too soon, the event was over, we look froward to seeing everyone again soon and the next event will be in the Yorkshire Dales from 3rd to 6th May 2024. All welcome. Especially new members.