Sunday the 15th of July was a bright sunny day and six cars and twelve members met up at the Tickled Trout for a trip out through the Yorkshire Dales. Our first stop was a very enjoyable picnic by the river at Bolton Abbey.

As you can see we even managed to park close to an Ice cream van which was very handy. Bill and Maggie would have won the prize for the best food and drink having brought along Champagne and even a wicker basket to contain it all, However we did not have such a prize! Tough.

From there we headed North through some of the finest scenery in England up to Hawes, where we made an excursion through the Butter Tubs Pass to a place we have being meaning to go to for a number of years but have not had the weather conditions to do so.  We had a quick stop on Butter Tubs to allow Bill to put up his roof as by then it had started to rain. Funny thing was no sooner had Bill put the roof on than the sun came out again. Anyway Tan Hill, the highest pub in Great Britain at a height of 1732 feet above sea level, was our objective. There are two very steep and tight hairpin bends at the start of the ascent up to Tan Hill and they would be impassable for a TVR in anything other than dry warm conditions.  The price of an overnight room in the pub is £25 which is worth knowing as apparently when the weather is bad up there people have been known to be locked in the pub for up to three days!

After having a drink we were running a bit late for our final destination of the Castle Green Hotel near Kendal where we had booked afternoon tea. A quick change in route saw us heading along the A66 at up to 80 Leptons before cutting across to Kirby Stevens and a blast down the M6 to the Kendal turn off.

Here we are devouring cakes, scones and finger sandwiches in the dining room at the Hotel.

If we keep these trips up we will soon be able to compile a guide to “Afternoon Teas” in the North of England. All in all it was a great day out and I thank you all for your company.

Dave Welton