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Getting into the Festival Spirit Words: Andy Kendall Picture: Shenstone Photography
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s all true Land Rover fans know, the inspiration for the original Land Rover design was drawn in sand on a Welsh beach. So, it seemed most appropriate to have a celebration in Wales for the 70th anniversary of the Land Rover launch. Having spawned the idea, the South Wales Land Rover Club made arrangements to host a ‘Welsh Festival of Land Rovers’ in association with the Royal Welsh Show Spring Festival in Builth Wells. And having done so, it put out an appeal for suitable show vehicles to participate across the weekend of 19 and 20 April. Space was limited, but there was enough room for 45 high-class vehicles to be put out on display.
The number of visitors to the display was impressive and it was obvious from talking to people that the vehicles brought back many excellent memories, especially for the farming communities. Information was on-hand from Green Lane Association, promoting sensible green laning, and there was also a display by the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team, who sadly lost their Land Rover in a devastating fire at their premises. A highlight of the event was the parade of Land Rovers, featuring 18 special vehicles and led off by the SWLRC’s youngest drivers, Huw and Rhys, in their police Toylander. The earliest production vehicle was Colin Pugh’s 1949 Series I, which was the first land Rover to be sold in Radnorshire to the then Major (later Lord) David Gibson Watt. It has undergone a full, but sensitive restoration in recent years and really does look spectacular.
Models followed in chronological order, so it became easy to spot the evolution of the Land Rover brand. Series IIs were represented by a wonderful IIA pick-up, which had been through a complete rebuild, and a very rare IIA Shorland armoured vehicle, as used by the Northern Ireland police border patrol. Amongst the Series IIIs, we had Bryn Jones’ 1972, still on its its original engine and used as a working vehicle. Coilers were led off by ‘Lola’, an original Land Rover demonstrator for the 110 and with a number of special conversions including Tony Johnson’s superb 6x6 vehicle, designed for an upcoming world tour, and ‘Katy’, one of only 48 Marshall 127 Ambulances made (previously featured in The Landy). Discoverys and Freelanders interspersed the Defenders and the parade was completed with a brand new Evoque, which the local Land Rover dealer,
Likes of Brecon, had complete with a 70th anniversary design. Thousands of people came to the event, which would not have happened without a lot of hard work from the members of the SWLRC. The club would like to host further events in
Wales and are in discussions with the Royal Welsh Show committee. If you would like to get involved and keep up to date with regards to possible future events, please drop an email to andy@ swlrc or marc@swrlc and you can be added to a mailing list.
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