2 September - Mid Norfolk Shooting Ground
After a few cooler days, warm summer weather returned for our car club shooting day. There were some spectacular cars outside the Mid Norfolk Shooting Ground, including a 1971 Pontiac Firebird, a Maserati and several Porsches. After a mug of hot chocolate and a bacon butty, we split up into groups to begin our shooting experience.
Tony, Brian Glover and his pal David decided to spend their time clay pigeon shooting while Chris Holloway took Colleen and Peter Fitzjohn under his wing and offered his air rifle for us to have a go. After a few duff shots, we began to get the hang of it and two hours later considered ourselves ‘hotshots. Well, not really, but we enjoyed our day shooting and look forward to the next time.
18th September - Club Night
27 members gathered at the Bird in Hand (including new members Steve, Scott and Richard) to welcome our guest speakers Philip Hunt, Volunteer Fundraiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind, Sandra Walster and her guide dog Jean. Sandra lives nearby in Wymondham and began to lose her sight when she was working as a Nurse. She applied for her first guide dog and Iris duly arrived and training for both Sandra and Iris began as a partnership.
We forget that as well as the dog being trained, the owner also has to be trained in how to look after the dog plus give commands and all aspects of that new life. Iris was retired at the age of just over 10 years old (guide dogs usually finish their working life around this time) and Sandra then had to go back on the waiting list and wait for another dog – Monty duly arrived a few weeks later.
Sadly he developed cancer and died relatively young and now Sandra has Jean who has been her guide dog for 2 years. Jean, a 2 1/2 year old golden labrador, enjoyed the attention from everyone at the meeting. Sandra explained how Iris, her first dog, changed her life as she became totally blind during her time with Iris, but with her dog was then able to venture into Norwich on the bus and become much more independent.
Philip and Sandra then answered many questions from members as we all wanted to know more about this lovely lady and her amazing dog. Philip told us that there are 5015 “partnerships" in the UK and 120 in Norfolk. Obviously more dogs are needed as it takes around 2 years before the dog is fully trained which then gives them an 8 years working life span.
The owner has first option to keep the retired dog if they wish or family/friends can give them a home. The usual breeds for guide dogs are labradors, retrievers and now labradoodles are beginning to be trained as owners who have issues with dog fur prefer these as their coats do not molt.
Philip asked us to guess the cost of training one dog – the answer was £58,600 which included any vet bills. The dogs are checked twice a year at the Vets to make sure all is well. A collection was held and £155 was raised which Philip and Sandra were delighted with. We thanked them for joining us as it proved to be a very interesting and informative evening.
22nd September – Visit to P & A Wood
Brian and Rosemary Glover had arranged for us to pay a return visit to P & A Wood, Rolls Royce and Bentley Specialists at Gt Dunmow. They are the only RR authorised accident repair agents in the UK and are also Bentley approved service dealers. In 2001 they were appointed as the Official RR and Bentley Heritage Dealers.
An early start as we began to arrive from 9.30am onwards for refreshments before being welcomed by Mark Hughes, General Manager, and our tour of their Showrooms and Workshops began. The Company was founded in 1967 by two brothers, Paul and Andrew Wood, who still retain a keen interest in the business.
Since our visit last July, a new Workshop had been added which opens officially next weekend. The Company employs 66 staff and there are usually 250 cars on site in various storage options. Mark began the tour by showing us a beautiful 1936 Rolls Royce Phantom 3 which has been given to General Montgomery during the Second World War and had now been fully restored by P & A Wood.
We then moved onto the Workshop where we met John Ashford, Workshop Manager, who started up another 1936 Phantom for us to hear. We also admired a car belonging to Eric Clapton in Caribbean Blue, (Eric’s personal choice of colour!).
Our next stop was the Rolls Royce Showroom displaying four stunning cars, the Phantom, Ghost, Dawn and the fastest of them all, The Wraith. Several of us sat in the Phantom, the height of luxury travelling complete with a star-studded internal roof! Although second-hand with 3000 miles on the clock it would still command a selling price of £420,000.
Our last stop was for a group photograph with the Silver Ghost 1911 called “The Sluggard”, probably the second most famous car in the history of Rolls Royce as it undertook the “London to Edinburgh run top gear trial”, travelling all the way in top gear, averaging 24.32mpg. Needless to say this car has an eye-watering price tag! We had collected £180 from members which we handed to Debbie, the Receptionist, for their chosen charity The Stroke Association as thanks for hosting us again. Several of us then made our way to the Angel and Harp for lunch.