The Series One Club 50th at Shugborough Hall
27-28th June 1998
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.
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4wdonline.com/News/1998/980627.Shugborough.html

Tom Pickford & Michael Bishop examine R860001
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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
Go to the
Series
and
50th x-ref
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