On Sunday April 31 we wake up to find that, just for a change it's weather for bikes not ducks and we meet up at the clubhouse for our run to the Sammy Miller museum in the New Forest. A sedate 45 minute ride and we are parking our bikes up at the museum which is already very busy. It's the Ariel and Matchless feature day and the rear bike park is full of pristine examples which have obviously received hundreds of hours of TLC. Into the courtyard for a cup of coffee where we listen to the barrel organ playing, which was quite quaint but after a while began to make us think of things like banging our heads against a wall, it would have been nice to stop! Personally, it was my first visit to the museum and I was very impressed by the range of rare and classic bikes on display. I hadn't realised just how technically advanced some of these bikes were, even back in the 1920's where you can clearly see the buds of ideas so commonly in use today and thought of, by myself at least, to be cutting edge. One feelin I came away with was that the riders who raced those bikes must have had nerves of steel.
Just enough time now to shoot down to Mudiford for a walk along the shore then off to lunch at The East Close Country Hotel on the A35 4 miles north of Christchurch. On walking into the restaurant of this beautiful building I couldn't help but feel a bit out of place in my leathers when confronted with the elegant surroundings and neatly laid out tables, but the warm welcome that we received meant those feeling were short lived. We all plumped for the carvery at £8.50 a head which was excellent. Beef, pork and Turkey was carved off in great slabs and laid on our plates then we helped ourselves to as much veg as we liked. Purfick!
As we left, Liz, who owns the hotel together with her husband and their business partner, came over to talk to us and came out to see our bikes. Liz told us that they would like to bring in a younger clientel and would love to have more bikers visit the hotel. There is even a secure barn for us to leave our bikes in over night should we wish to stay. They are also going to start doing cream teas so we will be organising a cream tea run out there soon. We all agreed that we have never been to such a biker friendly place and would recommend The East Close Country Hotel to all. Watch this site, we'll be going back there soon. Time to head home now after an excellent start to the new season. We all pull out onto the A35 and with a sound like a Howitzer going off, Pete goes by on his TL like a ferret up a drainpipe.
Their web site can be found at www.eastclosecountryhotel.co.uk
Sammy Miller Museum
By : Nick Davies
