<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Jaguar-Mk2Jan20.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-6031" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Jaguar-Mk2Jan20-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>Earlier this week I met up with Richard, Jane's brother, at <a href="https://www.handpickedhotels.co.uk/fawsleyhall#" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fawsley Hall</a> to check a classic car rally route he was planning for March. The hall, now a hotel, is somewhere I visited many years ago when it was a ruin with no glass in the windows. Now it is an upmarket venue.

After a brief coffee we set off with Richard driving and me in the navigator seat following the tulip instructions (see example below) he had developed using Google maps. It was his intention for the route to work its way along narrow roads through Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and finishing in Nottingham. Early on we came along a field road near Daventry that came to a sudden halt at a closed gate and private sign. We had to backtrack and find another way round making notes of the change of route, distance between junctions and cumulative distance, Not easy when bumping along some of the country roads.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/tulips.gif"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6030" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/tulips-300x223.gif" alt="" width="300" height="223" /></a>We stopped for lunch at <a href="https://www.swanbraybrooke.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Swan in Braybrook</a> the idea being to make sure it was suitable for a coffee stop for the rally. We continued on winding our way through Leicestershire  but it became really messy as we approached Nottingham and our final destination of <a href="https://www.wollatonhall.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wollaton Hall</a>. We had to be there before 4pm to catch the person responsible for providing a room for the participants at the end of the rally. We rolled into the park at 3.45pm and Richard just had time to take a quick look round. We parked at the front of hall to see how good the photo opportunity will be when 13 classic cars are all lined up in front of the magnificent facade. (The picture above was taken in a courtyard behind the main building).

And so back to Fawsley Hall to collect me car, a quick coffee and head for our respective homes.