Malvern Ho!

The sun shines on the righteous so they say and it certainly shone brightly for our journey to the factory last Monday, so we must have done something right!

After a brief and noisy drive on the M6 and M56 we joined the A49 south of Warrington and headed south on a route that would take us through Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and the Welsh Marches to Malvern.

Picnic lunch on the A49

The A49 is a road that always brings back countless memories of the 12 hour drive completed by my father, taking his family on their annual holiday to Devon, in the days before the motorways.

Our journey on Monday coincided with a similar trip that my email chum Dennis Duggan was making, from his home in Welshpool, to collect his 4/4 that had been at the factory having work done. We calculated that we might see each other en route as he travelled north and we moved southwards, the approximate meeting point likely to be Church Stretton.

As we approached the place, I spotted a sign to a village 2.5 miles away, where my youngest sister has bought a cottage that is being renovated and I thought that a small detour to see it could be made without jeopardising our chance of spotting Dennis. Little did I realise that clearly the distance shown was in 'Shropshire miles' and it turned out that our detour had probably taken half an hour and by the time we rejoined the A49, we had sadly missed Dennis, much to the consternation of my wife who felt that I had let him down.

'Link Lodge' a short walk from the factory.

Finally arriving at the lovely 'Link Lodge', http://www.linklodge.co.uk , our overnight accommodation in Pickersleigh Road, at around 2.30, I decided to drop the car off at the factory early for its windscreen replacement, rather than the scheduled time of 8am on the Tuesday morning, thinking that instead of having to rise at 7am on Tuesday I could enjoy a more leisurely awakening.

Towards the Malverns

On our way there we saw a silver Morgan AeroMax coming in the other direction that flashed its headlights at us. As we drew closer it was no other than Charles Morgan and as I mentioned to the delightful young lady in Service Reception, it is not everyone who has had the pleasure of being 'flashed' by Mr Morgan!!!

In the evening we enjoyed a first class meal and excellent ale at the nearby 'Nags Head' http://www.nagsheadmalvern.co.uk 

Following a lovely nights sleep, and a good chat with our host Peter over a hearty breakfast we collected a newspaper, fully expecting to spend a couple of hours in the Visitor Centre, and made our way there, settling ourselves in for the wait. Always pleasant when surrounded by Morgan paraphernalia.

In the Visitor Centre at the factory

We had hardly had time to gather our breath when we were informed by the receptionist that the car was ready, they had obviously begun the three hour job after we had left it with them on Monday. This was great news because it meant that we could make a relatively early start home.

The first part of the journey was completed with the top down, but rain for the rest of the trip caused the hood to be raised., not only that but we had to make a large detour after we had joined the M6, along the M62 and on to the M61 up to Preston and then home.