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Middleton Hall MG Day and Magnette Register AGM

The Magnette register continued its programme of events for the 2014 season with a trip to Middleton Hall near Tamworth in Staffordshire, an event that we had already taken part in both in 2012 & 2013. Interestingly, we had a total of 11 cars in attendance which was exactly the same number as the previous year, with this number just being pipped in 2012 when 12 cars attended. This gave us a good percentage of the overall attendance as organisers Roger & Fran on behalf of the Octagon Car Club had a total of 70 cars booked. The weather was reasonably good with just two or three short heavy bursts of rain during the day which quickly dried up once the sun came back out. There were plenty of things to do on the day a tour of the house itself, an RSPB walk and a brass band to listen to. Professional caterers had been hired for the day who were based within the field where the cars were meant that no one had to go hungry or thirsty! 
 
We also used this meeting to hold our AGM which was well attended. Owing to our Chairman David Halliday being back "home" in Australia for a holiday break, our previous chairman Paul Batho stepped in to the breach once again to chair the meeting.  We were extremely lucky to have Celia Palmer, Gerald Palmer's daughter join us for the day. I know that Celia enjoys our events immensely as it gives her the opportunity to be amongst people who love and cherish the cars that her father designed during his time in charge of MG work at the Morris Drawing Office. Due to a very fortunate piece of timing, Competition's Secretary Trevor Jones was able to present Celia with the latest copy of Practical Classics as they have just taken on a Jowett Javelin that had been in hibernation for 50 years as a staff car, this of course being another car that Gerald had designed earlier during his time with the Bradford based Jowett company. It will be interesting to see what the magazine have planned for the car which are probably more rare than Magnettes these days.
 
During our post-AGM open forum, one matter that was raised by those in attendance was that they felt it was time that the register ventured further North again for one of our events next year. It's always good to get any feedback like this from register members, so your committee are happy to take your venue suggestions for discussion at our next committee meeting at the beginning of November. Please do feed any suggestions you have to any of the committee members for discussion.
 
Text by Peter Martin, photos by Stephen Tickell and Cynthia Harris
 
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