Story Search Results

Race Day Parties #27

...race his motor bike there before the war and he was invited to join in with the historic bike racing – he jumped at the chance of riding a bike again and did really well, at the age of 61! Official Donington Park Opening Brochure Kev and I went along with my brothers and we all got dressed up in our Sunday best, Kev wearing a jacket and me in a large floppy hat and heels – we looked as if we were going to a wedding not a racemeeting!  But dad assured us that we needed to look the part as there was a big party afterwards in a marquee with all the top racing people in attendance – ‘racing royalty’ we called them.  People like Bob Gerrard, who wa...

Race day parties #26

...race his motor bike there before the war and he was invited to join in with the historic bike racing – he jumped at the chance of riding a bike again and did really well, at the age of 61! Kev and I went along with my brothers and we all got dressed up in our Sunday best, Kev wearing a jacket and me in a large floppy hat and heels – we looked as if we were going to a wedding not a race meeting!  But dad assured us that we needed to look the part as there was a big party afterwards in a marquee with all the top racing people in attendance – ‘racing royalty’ we called them.  People like Bob Gerrard, who was one of the top racing drivers of the post w...

Race Day Parties #25

...race his motor bike there before the war and he was invited to join in with the historic bike racing – he jumped at the chance of riding a bike again and did really well, at the age of 61! Kev and I went along with my brothers and we all got dressed up in our Sunday best, Kev wearing a jacket and me in a large floppy hat and heels – we looked as if we were going to a wedding not a race meeting! But dad assured us that we needed to look the part as there was a big party afterwards in a marquee with all the top racing people in attendance – ‘racing royalty’ we called them. People like Bob Gerrard, who was one of the top racing drivers of the post war e...

Moving On #33

...MOVING ON - And so we come to the end of my story.  My dad and Gavin moved out to live in Burton and my mum carried on running Mediaeval Banquets for a few more years.  She and the singer eventually got together much to my dad’s chagrin.  He spent a lot more time at the Hall helping my mum run the banquets; however, Piers didn’t really get on with him.  When he was about 14 years old my dad received a phone call from Piers – he had run away from home and was ringing from the phone box by the Meynell Arms car park!  He told my dad that he was hiding behind a bush and could he come and get him.  Of course, my dad was only too happy to fetch him and get...

Like father, like sons #20

...LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONS:        As previously mentioned in earlier blogs my dad used to be a racing driver during the 1950s and ran his own team, Shardlow motor Racing, in the 1960s, travelling all over Europe in his trusty Volkswagon van (see picture above) with his two mechanics and racing driver.   He didn’t have big sponsorship money behind him and most of it was done on a shoestring but he came back with lots of funny stories of their van breaking down or some rural ‘hotel’ that they had stayed in.  From each country that he visited he always brought me back a doll dressed in the traditional costume of that country.  There was quite a collectio...

Rags to Riches #14

...ve on his motor bike one day to see me (we’d been meeting at the disco) and my dad chased him away yelling and shouting at the top of his voice to ‘clear off’. Needless to say, that was the end of another relationship before it even got started! Another long-haired biker rides up the drive!   However, I carried on serving at the banquets until I was well over 16 and had left school. By then I’d had enough and wanted to go out with my friends at the weekends although I did still help out with cleaning the house and laying the tables ready for the banquets on a Saturday night. During the holidays after leaving school my parents gave me a little pro...