TMW - Heveningham Hall Country Fair, Classic cars and classic auction, a good day marred by some awful staff behaviour.

I remember many many years ago when they announced that the Heveningham Hall estates would open the grounds for one day to have a classic car show and a general Country fair style event to raise money for charity.

The Hall is based in Suffolk not far from Southwold, Halesworth and Darsham, for those that do not know, and it was that event that me, and my then partner visited, mainly to have a beak at the hall, and the cars that were on show, we did this for about three or four years, at that point I moved away, until this weekend.

I received a press release to say that they were having a number of classic cars, and some extra special cars too, from Ferrari, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Mercedes and so many more, however, it was an event of two parts, I went mainly to see this, and I also went to view the accessibility of disabled customers, and to be honest, on that point i was disgusted.

PARKING FOR DISABLED VISITORS ON A VERY STEEP AND UNEVEN GROUND

Firstly, 99% of events will allow a carer to go F.O.C. as they dont generally want to go to these places, but have to, as they are looking after the disabled person, but there was a charge, firstly it is illegal in the UK to offer a disabled person a concession, it is classed as discrimination, I know this as I took part in the introduction of this new policy in a previous job I had, and secondly they charged the carer full price, they need to sort out their pricing policy, before someone makes an official complaint.

Parking for the disabled customers was a joke, we were parked on a very steep incline, making wheelchair use nigh on impossible, we overheard a number of other people complain about that, the grass had been cut, but NOT cleared, so again making it very difficult to get wheelchairs through.

THE OTHER DIRECTION FROM OUR CAR SHOWING THE STEEPNESS AND POOR GROUND EVENNESS

This needs to be sorted too, as they will just end up turning people away, and then that starts to get around and well, we all know what happens with Chinese Whispers.

Once we got to the pay booth, it was then we noticed that we were to try and get across a stream or large divot in the ground via some foot bridges which were so thin that it was very difficult getting across, at either end of the bridges, the dirt was moving away making a hole, so again making it difficult to get across.

The last thing which really hacked us off, was the car enclosure, you had to pay £10.00 for a brochure to get in, but once in, you could not work your way along the cars to see them, they have landscaped the back grounds in a step style, so cars could be put on each level, around six of them.

The majority I was unable to get anywhere near the cars, because I could not get my scooter there, whilst there, they actually told another scooter rider that he could not go near the cars,  I was so angry that they were happy to take his money, yet not allow him to look at the cars, the could have put the cars on the levels at more of an angle to get past, so everyone could see them.

 But that was the bad, and it was, I have never felt so under appreciated, and as though i was a problem rather than a paying customer.

But onto the good, The day was great, really warm all day, we had a great drive to the event and once inside there was so much to do and look at, it seems like they are trying to emulate the Suffolk Show, or any style of County show, with lots of local wares for sale, cars both old and new, with Mercedes and Tesla on display.

A large central arena had all the events take part, from birds of prey demonstration, he lost his bird at one point, which was really funny, to monster trucks, where the guy in the truck spent more time talking a load of old waffle, even the kids around us were moaning about it, but once they got the trucks up and running squashing a few old cars, it was a lot of fun.

There was a lot of kids amusements, like a fair, bouncy castle, well bouncy octopus, the big kids had a bungee jump, and an off road style drive on some Land Rovers, which from what we saw, was just the LR's going over a see saw and that was it.

The food and drink stalls were in abundance, with lots of local foods and drinks for sale, clothing, countryware goods, general, um, tat, some lovely motorbikes, oh I do miss mine, and the reason for us being there, classic cars.

From the early days of motoring up to more modern cars like TVR models were on display, some war time trucks, and American cars from the 50's and 60's, not to mention some great British cars, Like the Austin 1800, Morris Minor's, Triumph Herald's Rovers, Vauxhall's and more, a real treat for the car nut amongst you.

There was a great air show, with around 100 planes, landing and taking off at the rear of the grounds, and a Spitfire doing a display at the front of the hall, it is always great to see such a stunning and amazing plane, like the Spitfires doing what they were designed to do, and thats fly, after so many decades, the old girl was spinning, pulling high, turning and dropping to teh ground, giving everyone a stunning show, unfortunately the plane was so swift, we managed to get just a could of pictures, but here they are.

The event was good, but they have tried to cram so much into a small area, next year they need to spread it out a little more, have more space for people to get around, maybe more chairs and tables, how about a seating stand on the arena, a small charge of £1.00 to have a seat for each event in the arena, and it will soon pay for itself, there are so many things that they can do to make  it better next year, but, for now, the event was good, and you can clearly see the difference between year one and today.

TMW - The Motoring World
Jon Mower

© 2016 all pictures except the first picture of Heveningham Hall are the sole property of The Motoring World, and usage outside of this post is by permission only.