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Area 10 - July Update

Area 10 Rep Jeff Sears | Published on 7/23/2025

Area 10 News - July 2025

We had more good Aston weather in June with a lot to report on, and there is a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Also, a heartwarming tale to end with.

The month kicked off with the AMOC Spring Concours weekend centred on Burghley House in Stamford, Lincolnshire. You will no doubt have seen several reports on the weekend but it was a wonderful location. Exploring the town of Stamford itself was worth the trip and we agreed with John Betjeman’s assessment of it being "England's most attractive town", much as I agreed with his less flattering assessment of Slough when I spent 40 years working there!

Burghley House itself was magnificent and those of us lucky enough to attend the International Dinner were treated to an evening tour of the house and dinner in the Great Hall. For the concours itself the cars were arranged in front of the house and I am pleased to report that Area 10 Member, Richard Harwood, won the Feltham Class with his DB2/4.

We had a warm, dry evening for our June monthly meeting at The Harte & Magpies where, unusually, everyone arrived in an Aston. We welcomed new Member Louis Starnowski in his new Vantage and Stephen & Christine Lawrence attending their first event with their DB7 Vantage Volante. After eating in the pub, the meeting largely migrated to the car park.

The next morning, 24 Members in 20 Astons converged on the Bremont HQ near Henley for a guided tour of the facilities. It was a beautiful sunny morning and so we enjoyed bacon butties and coffee in the grounds before splitting into two groups for our extended tours. They are proud of being a British watch company, albeit currently using Swiss movements. It was remarkable how young the staff assembling the watches were with the emphasis on patience and dexterity rather than academic prowess. As far as I know, on this occasion none of our Members purchased a watch on the day.

And the following day we completed the hat-trick of events by attending the Abingdon Air and Country Show. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was a large event featuring a wide range of stalls, a lot of classic cars (but just five Astons), plus air displays. Highlights for me were the RAF Falcons parachute team, BBMF Lancaster, B17 Flying Fortress and C17 Globemaster. The C17 made several passes and so I prepared to take a photo of it with my car in the foreground – I was amazed to see how low it was as it was actually landing!

As I write this, I understand that about 10 Astons were attending the Yattendon Classic Vehicle Day whilst I was with a further 10 Astons as guests of Lady Judy McAlpine at the late Sir William’s Fawley Hill Museum and Railway. We were given pride of place in front of the sprawling museum with its many thousands of railway memorabilia exhibits. We all had at least one ride on the railway – hauled by a diesel engine as the steam engine was still awaiting pressure testing at Didcot. As the train climbed the 1 in 13 gradient we watched out for free-roaming deer, peacocks and llamas – a thoroughly enjoyable day. Area 10 Members Liz Constance, Boz Medland and Liz Constance have all posted excellent photos of the visit on our Area 10 Facebook page: AMOC Area 10 (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) | Facebook

You might remember that in my email for April I put out a request to take a boy to his school Prom near Milton Keynes. I am really pleased to say that there were some volunteers – I will include the boy’s father’s words here to explain what happened:

We'd like to extend our eternal gratitude to you and your wonderful members for making Daniel's dream come true on Friday night by arriving in style to his school prom in a beautiful DB7! He was absolutely over the moon when it pulled up outside his house to collect him. He had absolutely no idea that it was happening and it was an amazing surprise, he was a VERY happy young man! His school prom is a once in a lifetime experience and he will treasure that memory forever more.

If you'd be so kind to publish the thank you in your next newsletter please, with special thanks to David Nicholls and his daughter Jennie for providing the DB7 and being chauffeurs, plus many thanks also to Steve Pollard and Ian Molyneux for their very generous offers of the use of their beautiful cars too, that would be very much appreciated, thank you.

If you do publish the thank you then would it be possible to send me a copy of the newsletter as well please? I'm sure Daniel would love to frame it and put it on his wall, to go alongside the many other pictures and posters of Aston Martins!

Finally, could you also send our thanks to head office as well please, as if they hadn't forwarded my plea to you and you sending it out to your members then it wouldn't have happened at all.

We'll all be going to the Vantage Day at Gaydon in August so we'll hopefully meet up and chat to you and your members then.

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