The frenetic pace of the trip continued and we headed south and soon we were at the home of Peter and Carol, people with whom we’d become acquainted during the Alps holiday in 2023.
It had been hilarious when Carol answered questions about “where in Derbyshire did you live?” and she was narrowed right down to Sparrowpit, all the time assuming that we wouldn’t know where she meant.
The purpose of this first visit was to take a closer look at their DIY van-to-camper conversion, the first that we have seen that has the sort of highly practical fixtures and fittings that we might try to emulate, should we ever decide to get a van.
For the record it’s a 2015 Transit 2014.5 MY 350 L3 H3 AWD (long wheel base and high roof neither of which are as big or as tall as we thought).I saw the spec sheet and it had some very useful features at purchase that would have helped with the decision to buy.
We left with lots of ideas of what to do and maybe what not to do, once we commit and decide to do ‘it’. They confirmed some of what we know already, which is that boxes are better than drawers and hanging space. Single beds lengthways are better than a double sideways. Also that access to water, heat, toilet servicing and the like is much better from the rear than the side. A service area can be created between the rear of the living space and the rear barn doors.
We said goodbye after a few hours and had only driven a mile when the low coolant warning flashed on. This is a DIY addition which uses a Range Rover coolant header tank float switch to warn, very early, of a drop in the level. For our 300 TDi engine, discovering coolant loss only when the water temperature gauge goes into the red is far too late. Damage to the cylinder head would have already happened.
Normally this doesn’t happen anyway but of course I had recently ’fiddled’ and done some preventive maintenance by changing some of the coolant hoses. We had a leak at the radiator bottom hose but it wasn’t too bad and we topped up with a litre or two.
We continued, skirting Shrewsbury and then passing the St Ivel factory at Minsterley, now a Müller brand. In 2007- 8 that was the source of much trifle making success by teaching to concentrate on the “devil’s in the detail”. Considerable quantities of trifle and yoghurt were bought in the factory shop and taken home each weekend, to be shared with family and friends.
At Bishops Castle we were the first and only on the CL there and were reacquainted with site owner Bruce. A quick check underneath the radiator and I nipped-up the hose clip and thought all was well.
We were amazed during our walk into the town at how dry it is this year and how terribly wet it was at that same time last year. I remember that we had lots of rain from October 2023 to late Spring. This year the ground is hard and the winter mud is already dry.
Unfortunately all the local beer at The Three Tuns was ‘settling’ and the alcohol drinker was content with the widely available Landlord rather than that from the on-site brewery. We enjoyed a late afternoon wander and then walked back for what was a very wet night outside.
Wandering towards Leominster the next day, it became obvious that the leak wasn’t fixed with my quick intervention and I decided to find a garage. Lying on your back, pulling the bottom hose off a radiator with about 7 litres in it, threatening to discharge a mix of Glycol and water onto you, is not appealing.
We made our way to a 4x4 garage in Knighton but it was closed and the owner answered the phone and recommended another up the hill but having got it up in the air, Richard decided he was too busy!
Michael, an unassuming guy at the interesting Knighton Classics, was very willing but concerned that the soon to arrive pickup truck, would come just after he got started. With no ramp to put the Landy up in the air, both he and I were anyway likely to be lying underneath with 7 litres of coolant about to fall on us. So I quickly agreed with him that the truck would probably be here imminently and instead made small talk about the MG Midget that it was collecting.
It took quite a lot of small talk to tease out that this immaculate car was about to be sent back to its owner, a widower who had entrusted it to Knighton Classics for a rebuild.
A TV programme could have been made of the story. The car was at their house in France and the owner died without completing the project. His wife brought it back to England / Wales but in bits and in several large boxes. The unassuming Michael has spent hours rebuilding and restoring it and now, just as it was about to be handed over, a bloke with a leaky Land Rover turned up!
We did rummage amongst old colony hose boxes and I found a piece of hose that might be needed and Michael handed over a new hose clip that eventually I did use. He refused my £5 offer and we left.
A day later, in the shadow of a friend’s 1954 Series 1 Land Rover, I removed the fancy Micalor clip and fitted the Jubilee and realised that the problem was caused by me changing the hose type from silicone to rubber and forgetting that the silicone ones are a little thicker. For the record and to round-off the story, Micalor clips have a minimum diameter, below which they can’t go. My clip was correct for the previous silicone but oversize for the rubber. The 7 litres stayed where required.
So we were now in Herefordshire, with H & T, wowing over their completed heritage barn conversion to dwelling. You could easily imagine Kevin McCloud visiting with the Grand Designs crew as the project had everything. It was previously a cruck barn only ever used for cattle and now looks almost the same from the outside but is ultra modern in that it is all electric, with ASHP, underfloor heating, solar PV supported and with a humongous amount of insulation cloaking it.
You would never know about that though as all original features have been retained, the walls stabilised and it is beautifully finished inside and out.
Look at the weather forecast!
We spent some nice days again touring the local black and white villages. In contrast to one year ago, it was dry, warm and the skies were blue. Last April it had been raining for five months and it had been tough in the Landy.
This is Weobley
…and the sundial is showing the incorrect time, even though I know it is now BST. The error seems to be about the same as that caused when the foot of the support metal was moved slightly to the left. You can see the previous position at the mark of the square mount, above the XII with the new support shown as the dark black vertical line. It was about 2:30pm GMT.
The nights were dark and the sky perfect. What a spell of weather,
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