The Series One Club 50th at Shugborough Hall

The incredible thing about this event was there were too many early Land Rovers to have a look at each one. There was every type from the 10 years of production that is given the `Series One' name. The total count for the weekend was an attendance of over 500 Land Rover from 1948 to 1958. I went along with some friends in the Land Rover Register 1947 to 1951. We arrived in the afternoon of the 27th.

Shugborough Hall is a large stately home that is open to the public in Staffordshire. The Series One club had chosen Shugborough as the site for its 50th celebrations due to its facilities and also so that those who weren't interested in Land Rovers would have something to see. The fields on the right hand side of the hall were covered in early Land Rovers.

Driving back from setting up camp an early wreck appeared on a trailer in front of us. Before going through the gate to the field Guy waved to me to have a look at this heap. We realised a quick glance that it was very early and the Warwickshire registration number gave a hint of it once being a factory vehicle. Once in the field we were given the chance to have a look at it. It is R860001 the first production Land Rover, in very rotten condition but still just with us. We crawled all over it and took some detailed notes and photo's of odd early parts and differences. This vehicle turning up was certainly one of the highlights of the weekend.

4wdonline.com/News/1998/980627.Shugborough.html Tom Pickford & Michael Bishop examine R860001

The other great aspect of the event were all the other Land Rovers and there owners from other countries. It gave me some time to familiarise myself more with the production left-hand drive 80" when helping a bloke from Belgium with the carburettor on his 1952 model.

The Saturday night was spent in a huge marquee that was very well set up with a roast dinner selection down one end and the bar down the other. The next day was the official line up. It seems they had the same problem at Cooma in that it was almost impossible to put all the vehicles in order from oldest to newest. It was good though to have so many together. Tom and I basically went through the list of vehicles attending and went to find the ones we were interested in looking at. After spending many hours we decided to get all the preproduction Land Rovers lined up. We managed to get eight of them lined up which is the most assembled together in recent history. It was a great event.

- Michael Bishop © 1998 - 80" Register

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