Terry’s Drop In Centre

We started off with some grand plans for Calne Bike Day which culminated in an Overnighter at a local hostelry but it slowly became apparent that there wouldn’t be enough of us to justify the party that Terry wanted to organise and a display like I’d done at Salisbury etc wasn’t the right thing for the venue.

We’ve now had a space there for as long as I can remember and in recent years a lot of people that we rarely see just turn up, some are ex members, some are not. Some stay a few hours, others don’t. The days of our club and others all massing at The Lysley Arms and riding in as large groups has died off. So this year Terry just took the Dome and his tea bar and ran a “Drop In” centre with bikes being parked on a first come first parked basis. He was there at 7.30 am along with Padre and Pete Diccox to get set up before heading to the café for his “Full English” and muse on who may or may not turn up that day. One thing he knew was that the weather would bring lots of them out, which of course it did. 

At one point we had 28 bikes parked in our slot with a visit from Solent, which put a 1900 and 2 more Raiders on show. There was a member from Essex who turned up in the afternoon and a few of our ex members from over 10 years ago. At the end of it there was a rideout to Bowood House with a band playing on the lawn in front of the house and about 350 of us parked up to watch them. That was a great way to end the day and a pity that more of us didn’t go there. As for me, I found a shaded bench in the formal gardens overlooking the lake that was dug out by the hands of 4000 men in part of what is arguably Capability Brown’s grandest design.

It was quite a surreal day, “When I were a lad” no town would have turned itself over to thousands of bikers and let them park in such a chaotic manner and been happy to have them there and accommodate them. And as to the local landed gentry laying on a band at their stately home, welcoming them with open arms and inviting them to park on their front lawn and enjoy themselves at his expense….it beggars belief.

How times have changed

Blackjack.bob

Some pictures (stolen from C16 website)