The Black and White villages

 Not content with a small oil leak on the engine, I decided to change the o-ring at the oil filter thermostat housing.  In true “cause a bigger problem” style, I did this job on a Sunday afternoon, the day before a fast start on another shakedown trip. Even though I used a delicate 1/4” drive socket, I cracked the case flange because the new o-ring was a bit thicker than it should be and it was Sunday and I couldn’t get another.

So now I needed a new housing and optimistically arrived at Paddock’s the next morning at 8am. Unfortunately their website was correct and they didn’t have one but I did get the correct o-ring. Happily the other customer there, who was spending a lot more than me (on this occasion anyway), suggested I try Cavendish at Chesterfield. Guess what? They had one on the shelf, although they didn’t know why.

So two hours after I left home, I returned and a little bit later the Landy was available for loading.

We came close to the Welsh Borders, in order to finally visit friends who have been working on a major barn rebuild and conversion and have almost finished the plastering stage. Wow, what a beautiful job they have made, considering that the dominant gable-end needed to be totally rebuilt and ancient timbers helped to serve another hundred or more years.

It is magnificent and is worthy of ‘Grand Designs’. We can’t wait to return this summer to see the finished building.

We visited a community-run café in a local village church. What a great use of space. We discovered that the sprightly octogenarian that served us was a one-time farmer at Monyash. Oh how we enjoyed talking about grass, finishing cattle and general ‘farming on Limestone’ stuff.

The local art group were busy in the nave and the community shop with Post Office counter is under the café at the back of church and so the whole space was in use. 

Later we walked up to the local viewpoint, nearly failing to negotiate the water and mud that are the result of incessant rain since the end of October. It didn’t rain until we were halfway down. Taking in a view from an elevated position always shows you the weather that is coming soon and we therefore knew what to expect. We got drenched.

Later we moved to see the back and white villages that are found west of Leominster, conveniently finding a little museum and later a tea room, so that we were able to dodge some of the rain in Eardisland.

Finally it stopped and we were in yet another Back and White village, with a caravan site and space to dry out.

This was Pembridge and that evening we had beer and curry at the Red Lion pub. Nothing better!

The church here has a separate bell tower, as have several other village churches in the area. This one is magnificent with huge oak pillars and beams that have been here for many hundreds of years. 

The bells are driven by a 19C clock and chime the quarter hours, so a few minutes were eagerly spent waiting to see the mechanism whirring and hear the 3.30pm chime. I learned a little about the autonomous maintenance of church bells too.

I’m not clear on the bell ringing instructions though.

Around Flamborough Head

Moving along the coast towards Bridlington, we found a tiny CL near Bempton. It wasn’t the first choice but it might as well have been. It is next to the railway station and is a 1.5 mile walk by road to the RSPB place at Bempton cliffs, so it is a very good base.

Here they say the Puffins are arriving from west Africa but all we could see were Kittiwakes and Gannets, already establishing their nests on cliff perches.

Gannets are the seabirds that are normally only seen at a distance, well out to sea and usually diving into the water from a good height and apparently at speeds up to 60mph.

Now they are circling in front of the cliff faces and occasionally dropping onto their spot. Hundreds of them, nicely avoiding the greater quantity of Kittiwakes. They are a beautiful bird, effortlessly soaring with their large wingspan.

I’m afraid that my iPhone camera is no match for the long lenses on show at the RSPB lookouts.

It was an almost freezing night but thankfully dry at last. The D2 heater was on all evening and the bright sky and cold woke us at 6:30 and we were on plan for an early start and a long walk to Bridlington.

In a stiff breeze from somewhere near Iceland we walked back to the coast path and turned east towards Flamborough Head. It’s quite a trek but at least the wind was almost behind us.

These cliffs are spectacular.

Turning towards Bridlington, we headed into the wind but instead of dropping as we expected, it got stronger and the next few miles were head down and push on.

Bridlington was a little busy but there was no queue at the favourite chip shop and we had a very late lunch.

Then onwards to the station for a 9 minute ride back on the 16:04 to Bempton. 

Shakedown t’Yorkshire

The York Clubsite is very handy for the city and after all our complaints about Clubsite prices, I think this one is worth it for that convenience. We paid £0 because the Club has a ‘one night free’ offer at the moment.

The Minster entrance fee is £18 each but is valid for 12 months. What a stupendous place.

The House of Trembling Madness does lovely beer and fantastic beef goulash. The wall above our head was adorned with various animal heads.

Then we went to Filey for some sea air. It was certainly bracing.

We had to brave a dip (in the weather) but still managed a long walk, some beer and fish and chips (inside).

This was a tin behind the chip shop counter. I had to ask what was in the tin. Apparently it’s the Saturday lottery box!

This is a lovely construction, known locally as ‘Finlay’ and was donated to Filey by a long time visitor from Scarborough. It’s a fisherman and is actually titled, ‘High tide in short wellies’, making “a powerful statement about the decline in the fishing industry”.

It’s a hollow construction, comprising hundreds of small steel panels that have been seam welded.

There’s a beautiful war memorial garden in the centre of the town. Not a weed in sight.

Filey Brigg is much more dramatic than I imagined

but the wind was too strong to venture on to it after we already walked 8 miles in the wind and rain!

These are the cliffs just to the north.

We stayed at the Filey Brigg Country Park caravan site. The weather has of course been so wet that no one is able to stand on the grass but luckily there’s several pitches with hard standing.

Walking is tricky too with extremely muddy paths and still standing water. This is a field standing alongside, not blocking it but still it’s higher than the track!

A couple of jobs before the next trip

I seemed to spend all of January, February and a lot of March, in the garage. Following the last trip, I did say that I’d sort a couple of issues. One was excessive engine oil ‘consumption’ and the other a drivetrain clunk.

I was perhaps not quite expecting to almost-but-not-quite-strip the engine but that’s what happened.

Very fortunately I have the old CRV with the side-hung rear door. This happily swallowed the block and I took it to Sheffield Engine Services for a cylinder bore hone.

Once back home it was fitted with new piston rings to all cylinders and plenty of care and attention.

Quite a few oil leaks were addressed and I hope that I can run-in the rings and get good ring fit to the bores. Only time will tell.

Then it was onto the clunk. I believe that this is from the rear axle. Unfortunately by prying yet again on the suspension mounts, I discovered that the brackets on the axle tube were crusty. This needed a purchase from YRM of lovely new ones and also a suitable welder to stick them on. They are quite critical items.

Axle tie- bar brackets:

Anti-roll bar brackets:

I found Swift Welding at Harpur Hill and Dan did a careful job of positioning the replacements and welding them in place.

What about the crown wheel, pinion and diff centre though? Well there was a lot of wear between the cross pin and the side gears. I opted to replace the Salisbury centre with a new Ashcroft ATB. That meant learning how to setup a Salisbury final drive.

After much work, including sourcing some precision parts from a local machinist, it was done. It was then a race to get things back together in time for the self-imposed deadline of a night away in York.