A Short History of The Lakeland Rally, based largely on an original article published in Freewheel by Mike and Eileen Jones in 1998

The first Lakeland Rally was held in October 1976 and was solely an R.S.R. event (the Rovers P4 Drivers Guild had not yet been formed). Held in the grounds of the Waterhead Guest House at Coniston and organised by two local members, Frank Higgins and Bill Bateman, the weekend included a point-to-point crawl and a quiz on Rover history. Thanks must go to these members and all the other stalwarts who have supported the event from its inception to what it has now become - a legend amongst Rover owners. 1977 and 78 again saw the event at Coniston with an increase in numbers attending, including now the new, and ever growing, P4 Drivers Guild; so much so that, if the event was to continue, then a larger venue would be required. It was at this point that Eileen and Mike Jones became involved in the organisation. As Mike had worked for several years in the Lakeland area, he offered their services to the organisers, whereupon he was told "If you think you can do it, then go ahead". A tall order as all they had ever organised before was a Treasure Hunt for the Northern Section! They set out to find a suitable alternative venue and happened upon the Low Wood Hotel at Windermere - this met all our requirements, having a large car park, dining room and several lounges where we could congregate after dinner: In those far off heady days, dinner, bed and breakfast could be had for the princely sum of £10.50 per person per night! The event continued at Low Wood; going from strength to strength from 1979 until 1982 when, owing to family circumstances, Mike and Eileen had to stand down as organisers.

This position was ably undertaken by Richard Aldrich and the Lakeland Rally paid its first visit to the Ullswater Hotel where it remained until 1984. The venue then changed to one outside of the Lake District for a couple of years. The 1985 and 1986 event visited Stirk House in Gisburn on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border and 1987 went even further afield to the Ramside Hotel in County Durham. Eileen and Mike again became involved in 1988 by a series of co-incidences. Mike had been ruminating over resuming the event again and, within a fortnight, he had received calls from both Anthony Rowland of the R.S.R. and Colin Blowers of the Drivers Guild, with the same thought in mind. Would it be possible to do again? Could they possibly spare the time ? Could they find somewhere suitable? Initially they tried to rekindle old memories and hold the event back at the old venue, the Low Wood Hotel, but the response was poor and they had just about decided to abandon the whole thing when, once again, a series of coincidental and fortuitous phone calls persuaded them to hold a smaller than planned event in Ambleside. The road run that weekend took us once again to the Ullswater Hotel and, so impressed were they with the facilities and the hospitality, that they decided that this had to be the venue for the 1989 event.

Arrangements were made by Chris Young of the P4 Drivers Guild; who just happened to be staying there at the time, and who managed to secure an excellent rate for anyone wishing to stay at the hotel. By this time there were members not only of the R.S.R. but also the RP4DG, the Pendle & District Rover Association and the P4 Rover Owners Club. Not wishing to leave anyone out it was decided that, this time, the Lakeland Rally would not belong only to any one club but would be run the for the benefit of all Rover owners and enthusiasts whatever their persuasion. As the years rolled by we included the P5 Owners Club and the SD1 Owners Club in our list of invites. The event now had an average attendance of 100-120 cars for the " Pride of Ownership" on the Saturday afternoon with 150-200 members staying for the Quiz on Saturday night. The rally remained at Ullswater until 1998. The following year it moved to the Shap Wells Hotel but this did not proved ideal. After many years of dedicated service to the Lakes Rally Mike and Eileen decided to retire from the event.

There then followed a period of confusion as RP4DG and RSR members arranged to revive the event for 2000 unbeknown to each other, so for a few years there have been two events a week apart. In 2000 Stewart Devlin arranged the RSR event at Grasmere and tried to promote the Lakes Rally as a chance for P3 owners to meet. The pouring rain made it obvious that this was not a site we could call home as it turned into a mudbath on the Sunday afternoon. In 2001 we returned to the Ullswater Hotel, with a cruise on the steam yacht Gondola on Coniston Water. The 2002 event was scheduled for the Ullswater Hotel again but the arrangents fell through and at the last minute we moved to the Glenridding Hotel, with a visit to Lakeland Mining Museum at Threlkeld and a cruise on Derwent Water. For 2003 we moved to our present base, the Burnside Hotel at Bowness-on-Windermere, with a visit to the National Park Centre at Brockhole and a cruise on Windermere (it rained - a lot!) on Saturday and a visit to Sizergh Castle on Sunday. We have kept this format but changed the Saturday scenic run destinations, in 2004 we went to the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway and 2005 we returned to Coniston, to John Ruskin's home at Brantwood and a look around Bill Bateman's collection, 30 years after he helped to arrange the first Lakes Rally. Happily, after a couple of failed attempts, for 2006 the P4DG and RSR groups have managed to combine back into one event to be based around the Burnside Hotel with visits to Brockhole and Holker Hall.