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SVVS at Reigate Tunnel
Road Car Display -14th September 2024.
For some years now
our vehicle display has been registered as part of the national Heritage
Open Days scheme (HODS) which, as well as heritage sites, buildings and
architecture includes community events such as ours.
Our display isn't planned - this is 'Surrey Vintage' for goodness sake!
It's just a case of who turns up on the day, and while public static
displays are not really what the Society is about, we usually have a good
variety of vehicles representing motoring history through the ages. This
year we had vehicles from every decade from 1930 to the early noughties
with the exception of the '40's.
Parking can be quite tricky in the narrow confines of Tunnel Road,
particularly for the larger cars and in recent years we have positioned
Roger's mighty 1971 Dodge Charger in 'pole position' as the road narrows
towards the tunnel. This year five cars had already arrived and there was
no sign of Roger, so the line-up started with Steve's 1933 MG J2 2-seater
then Rob's '63 Ford Capri. Chris brought his family owned '53 Alvis TA21
saloon then new member Jonathan expertly navigated almost 16 feet of Alvis
TD21 into position without the benefit of power steering. Chairman Malcolm
was just positioning his 1972 Jaguar XJ6 when we heard the unmistakable
rumble of the 6.3 litre V8 engine of the Dodge in the tunnel. Roger
managed to squeeze the Super Bee in behind my Lancia Fulvia at a shallow
angle leaving just enough space for Bruce in the 1930 Le Francis to
complete the line-up before the stall of the Wealden Cave & Mine
Society who were giving guided tours of the caves.
John, another new member, along with his grandson Monty, started Part 2 of
our display inside the tunnel with the striking 2005 Hawk component car, a
convincing replica of the 1963 Le Mans AC Cobra. Sandra's smart '97
Peugeot 306 cabriolet continued the line-up followed by Editor Malcolm's
1983 Audi 80 Sport then Brian's 1933 Austin 10/4 saloon. Mike's bright
yellow 1958 Rover P460 has been that colour for 25 years and certainly
can't be missed! Nick was kept busy with people admiring his original
'time-warp' 1982 Austin Metro Vanden Plas. The Metro was a popular car in
its day, and now rare survivors evoke many fond memories. Some of us have
display cards for our vehicles; Chris just opened the bonnet of his
magnificent 1929 tourer and the word Lagonda cast into the engine's rocker
box was sufficient. Dave seemed intent on filling his diminutive1955
Austin A35 with large boxes of cornflakes which were on
offer at Morrison's, then Tony's 2002 Ford Mondeo V6 estate and Denis's
1974 VW T2 camper van completed the display of 20 vehicles. It was good to
see a couple of motorcycles present, Alan's 1930 600cc Douglas S6 with its
horizontal twin engine and distinctive external flywheel and Martin's
immaculate and original four-cylinder 1976 Kawasaki Z900. Many thanks to all those who attended and contributed to our
varied and interesting display. We hope you enjoyed the day.
Oh, and those wanting architectural heritage needed to look no further
than our venue, Tunnel Road, with its historic tunnel which opened as a
toll road in 1824 and was considered a wonderful feat of engineering at
the time. People may not be aware that below the Tunnel are the famous
Reigate Caves whose entrance is in the tunnel (see
cave photos of 2002). Although some of
the caves are natural, most of them are are man made. The man-made ones
are actually an extensive network of Sand Mines which produced large
quantities of Folkstone Sand, White Sand and Silver sand. Although most of
the sand was mined 'officially' many of the tunnels were made by private
individuals excavating tunnels from within the cellars of their homes. As
the tunnelers were amateurs, some of the tunnels frequently collapsed as
sink hole' including a section in 1869 which took out all the front walls
of a row of cottages. Equally dramatic was earlier collapse of the cricket
pitch in the Castle Court in 1858. A shower of rain removed the players
from the field a few moments before the pitch disappeared into the gaping
cavern below !
Report by: Chas Moody (Head of cones & stripey tape)
To enlarge photo please use the computer's Control+Scroll enlarge feature
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