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Club HistoryFounding of the Essex Land Rover ClubSometimes, for those like me who were in at the birth, or more accurately the conception, it seems that there's no need for this sort of writing - everybody surely knows how/why/when/where the Club was founded. Over 21 years, though, many (most) of the founders have moved on, and many of those who we now think of as the 'old guard' were not there at the beginning. So maybe before the remaining memories fade as we head towards senility, someone ought to write it down. As the only remaining committe member who was there at the start, I got the short straw.New Land Rover Clubs, in my experience, tend to form as a result of the splitting of an existing Club. Sometimes it's a personality clash or a disagreement over policy, sometimes it's just geography - members on one side of a Club's area get fed up with travelling miles to events which always seem to be on the other side, and start organising in their own locality, soon wanting to be masters of their own destiny. Some Clubs, of course, just represent one particular model or variant, and form because a few people think their pride-and-joy is not being supported well enough - often they will also organise the sourcing of rare spare parts as well. Anyway, to the best of my recollection, the Essex LRC was formed as a result of geography. To get the whole picture, I really need to go back a bit further. When I first got involved in Land Rovers (1969, if anyone cares!) the Anglian Rover Owners Club held its pub meetings in Cambridge, and trials were held at places as far apart as London Colney and Red Lodge, Freckenham (long before the Al 1 got re-aligned). Its area stretched from Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire to include the whole of East Anglia. A number of members were based around Norwich, and in (I think) 1971 they formed the Breckland LRC; Staff Dovey and I were founder members - I lived near Cambridge then. During at least part of this time Dave Bygrave and I were on the AROC committee. To get back to the plot - by 1983 the Anglian events always seemed to be over in the West of the territory, in places like Leighton Buzzard - excellent trialling, but a heck of a long way from Colchester! Dave Bygrave as I recall was the main driving force behind the idea of splitting AROC again, and forming a Club here in the East. A group of us held meetings on 7 May and 11 June 1983, at Brian and Monica Moseley's house, Codham Mill at Shalford. We agreed to form a steering committee as follows:
We agreed to go for the name 'Essex Land Rover Club' - this was not cut-and-dried as you might think, because the name, and indeed the formation of the Club, had to be approved by the Association of Rover Clubs before we could join said Association. We felt this was necessary because we wanted our members to be able to compete in lnterClub events like the National 'Rally. Anyway, Dave and I had become regular attenders at the ARC meetings at the Land Rover factory at Solihull, representing the Anglian ROC. (That was quite a trip in my 80”, trundling up the Ml!) So the necessary notification was given, and the proposed Essex LRC's membership of the ARC was approved on 18 June 1983. Word was spread around, and the inaugural meeting of the Club was held on 9 July 1983 on the top floor of Codham Mill, Shalford. During the afternoon we had an informal event (definitely NOT a trial - we weren't a Club yet so we couldn't get a permit!) at Shalford pit, which is now the Civic Amenity site next to Shalford Wood. In the evening, those assembled voted to create the Essex Land Rover Club, with the Steering Committee elected as the Club's first committee proper. There followed large-scale eating and drinking (we started as we meant to continue!) to celebrate the auspicious occasion. And they all lived happily ever after... John Beadle, Member No. 5
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