TALBOT OWNERS' CLUB A.G.M.
COALPORT CHINA MUSEUM ~ Saturday 9th April 2005

This year Christine and I made the whole AGM; unlike last year when due to a recalcitrant Talbot we missed the business part of the meeting (and, more disastrously, our lunch!). The two days were blessed with pretty good weather, coolish but dry and ideal for Talbot motoring, or in our case Toyota motoring, and the most attractive venue for the meeting was the Coalport China Museum at Ironbridge.

Our first task was to register which we did under the efficient supervision of Diana and Lucinda. We were given "Talbot" name badges in case at any time we forgot who we were. We then repaired to the canteen (restaurant?) where we had an adequate buffet lunch. It seemed that we might escape the meeting when it was discovered that the door to the conference room had locked itself but Tony located a key and we were able to commence the business.

While the predominantly male part of the assembly enjoyed the meeting, the ladies departed to the museum to try their hands at decorating pottery. I gather that some rather wonderful designs resulted, demonstrating how artistic and versatile are the ladies of the TOC. I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of the post-firing products which, I gather, will be sent on to the artistes.

David handled the business of the meeting with his usual aplomb and the official minuted section proceeded without any dissonant chord being struck, in fact the only striking was that of the Chairman's gavel. This, although effective in bringing the assembly to order, was as nothing compared to the threat of an alternative use of the gavel should anyone be rash enough to cause a disturbance.

The reports from the Committee members were concise and very well delivered and were the cause of no controversy whatsoever. The informal part of the meeting was taken up with two major topics - firstly the inspired idea of instituting Talbot health checks (it was made clear that this was for cars not owners), and secondly the difficult question of spares. This is not the place to comment on these issues which will require considerable debate both in committee and general meeting. The meeting having closed at approximately 5.00pm we had a cup of tea and then assembled outside for a group photograph, executed by our answer to Lord Lichfield aka Tony Ward.

We thought, as we went to the car, that Stuart Lloyd had invested in a chauffeur for the day, but on closer inspection this proved to be David's utterly delightful little spaniel which was solemnly ensconced behind the wheel of the 10/23. This lovely dog proved to be a great favourite with the TOC over the weekend.

Most of us were staying at the Park House Hotel in nearby Shifnal so we collected route directions devised by James, and, as always, correct to the last metre. The hotel had ample parking and looked pretty comfortable. We were delighted with our room which was spacious and quite luxurious. It wasn't till much later that a major snag was encountered. There was a wedding party celebrating immediately below us and the thumping bass rhythm from the discotheque all but shot us out of bed. I did get to sleep before it finished, which I gather was about 12.30, but then I did during the war (second world!), fail to wake up when the Luftwaffe dropped two HEs within 500 yards of our house, so I guess the noise of a disco was a mere bagatelle!

The geography of the hotel was rather strange in as much as we had to go outside to go in again. Pre-dinner drinks were in the Butlers Bar which involved a tour round ¾ of the building and we were obliged to make the return trip to our dinner venue.

The dinner in fact was very good and the service rapid and attentive and was much enjoyed by everyone. During the meal we were subjected to a pretty erudite quiz devised by Hugh Mackintosh who is somewhat of an expert in that field. The winners were the Sally Morris team, with a very impressive score of 42 out of 50. The less said about our score the better! Another feature of the dinner was a series of little brown envelopes, one to each place and individually numbered, rather like the things you get confronted with at your local church. These contained tickets with corresponding numbers which one retained for a raffle draw. It was intended that the envelopes should be stuffed with paper money - clinking coins being discouraged - to help bolster club funds. The prizes were well worth winning - not the usual Christmas and birthday leftovers.

Having raffled his drawers and distributed the prizes to the fortunate winners, David made his chairman's postprandial address, thanking those who had served the Club in 2004 and awarding the coveted trophies to the deserving recipients. The Ann Rawlings Salver, dedicated to the memory of her distinguished late husband Anthony, went to Henry Harvey for maintaining and using his 65 in the proper manner. New awards of merit consisting of solid silver replicas of the Talbot badge were made to Doug Lambert, and Cecil Schumacher for their services to the TOC. Graham Mellish and John Ward received theirs as a memento for their major awards the previous year.

Thus ended a truly memorable day. Some hiked off to the Butlers Bar for a night cap - we went to bed but might just as well have been in the bar due to the aforementioned disco.
Sunday dawned clear, bright and not too cool. After an English breakfast we checked out of the hotel and sought out Val Lloyd in the car park where she was distributing road directions and quiz sheets to enable us to reach Ingestre via her previously plotted scenic route. We arrived at Ingestre having stopped off on the way to look at White Ladies Priory and Boscobel House. Our objective was to visit St Mary's Church, which had recently undergone extensive restoration work, and enjoy the only Christopher Wren designed church outside London. We were treated to a potted history of the church and the Chetwyn Talbot family by one of the churchwardens who also doubled up as the organist. He spoke for the best part of an hour, entirely without notes. Quite a feat.

We departed Ingestre for our final lunchtime destination of the Horns Inn at Slitting Mill. All went well until the village itself when we encountered a queue of bemused Talboteers looking for a left hand turn into Slitting Mill Lane. After realising that this was in fact a right hand turn into Slitting Mill Road we all arrived safely at the Horns Inn. Having had a very good and inexpensive Sunday lunch, we made our farewells and took off on a comfortable and incident-free journey home. All credit and thanks to Val and Stuart for so efficiently organising this delightful end to what had been a really super weekend.

The phrase AGM fills the members of most clubs with feelings of doom and gloom. Not so the members of the TOC for whom the AGM is an entirely pleasurable experience. Business is kept to the necessary minimum and the rest of the time spent enjoying the company of good friends - in other words "having fun" - the whole so ably orchestrated by our gifted chairman, David, and his hard working committee.

The fine turnout of members and Talbot cars was a great credit to the club and augurs well for its future.

Hasta el año proximo. ¡Viva el Talbot!

John Talbot-Cooper