The Chatsworth Gathering 2008 has been and gone and what a fantastic day it turned out to be.

The weather forecast said rain, so it didn’t look as though the 292 TVR’s in 2007 would be surpassed.

Well how wrong can you be, down the road they came, all 403 of them, every model and every colour.

 I know Kev said 400, and he his more than happy with that figure, but the Chatsworth staff said their receipts show 403 cars. And they are more than happy with that too I’ll bet.

TVR after TVR rumbled down the road, we had so many queuing at one point they went right back up the road towards Baslow. The highest number of cars of any one make to gather at Chatsworth, and that’s official.

It looked like all the hard work that our South Yorks TVRCC RO, Kevin Dunnington, had put in, was going to be rewarded with a pretty good turn out.

He had been asked by Andy Richardson (madbadger) if he could incorporate a Tamora gathering at Chatsworth.  Then Kev decided to try to get as many Sagaris to Chatsworth as possible; the biggest Sagaris get together at any one time since the factory photo shoot. To be quite honest, I thought it was asking a lot, but if you don’t try you don’t succeed.

To make things more complicated for himself, Kev decided to have individual model parking areas.  This meant working out where each model would be parking, then making the signs and getting the posts ready for the big day.

There were plenty of volunteers to lend a hand so everything was starting to look good. The New Year saw the information about Chatsworth going onto the TVRCC website.

Kev was still running over to Chatsworth to sort out minor details, (I think he was having tea and scones with the Duke and Duchess), and everything was up and running. It didn’t take long for the enthusiasm and excitement about the Chatsworth Gathering to show on the forums, it was like looking forward to summer after a bad winter, it seemed as though everyone wanted to be there.

Then someone, (Gemini if I remember correctly) asked if anyone fancied organising a run round the Peak District on the Saturday before Chatsworth. That was when the guys from the East Midlands region of the TVRCC took up the cudgels and did a superb job of not only organising the run out on the Saturday, but sorted the accommodation out for the ones wanting to stay over Saturday night. Well done guys, you did a brilliant job.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to meet Richard and Gail Whitham at Baslow car park at 09.15 and it never fails to impress us when we turn down the road to Chatsworth House and see that beautiful building stood there, what a lovely sight, and what a lovely sight it must have been for the last TVR’s that arrived to see a field full of colourful Tivs sitting there in the sun.

Kevin and his lovely Mum were already there with the gazebo up and busy with the signs. He had been on 12 hour nights all week so must have been shattered, but his enthusiasm must have kept him going.  We parked the cars in the Chimaera spot and then all mucked in with erecting the flags and banners. Then we were ready for the cars to arrive and it didn’t take long for that to happen.

And the rest, as they say, is history.  What a brilliant day, we are already looking forward to next years meeting, and I know Kevin was at Chatsworth House the following day sorting out the details for next year.

 A big Thank You to Kevin Dunnington, South Yorkshire RO for organising it again.

Trev and Shirl Goodlad