Sunday 18th June 2017.

Father’s Day today, the weather forecast was for another warm, sunny and hot day.

After breakfast we decided to head off to have a look at the ‘Yorkshire Post Classic and Vintage Car Rally’ at Castle Howard. Leaving home at 9am in good time for the start of the show at 10.00am, needless to say shortly after setting off I hit the A64 curse, stationary traffic just past the Hull road turn off, which had washed back from the Hopgrove roundabout junction, the traffic was either stationary or crawling for the next hour till we reached the dual carriageway prior to taking the turn off for Castle Howard. The planners, road designers responsible for this stretch of road should hang their heads in shame. What is normally a 45 minute journey took one and three quarter hours!

Because of today’s event and the anticipated hundreds of extra visitors we had to park in the special car park adjacent to the north lake and walk up the slope onto the North Lawn. 

The North Lawn was an absolute picture of Classic cars and some vintage cars, all lovingly restored and looking in pristine condition, the car owners and families all close by sheltering from the heat and mid-day sunshine. Personally I am not a great lover of the Classic car, much preferring the vintage models, but that said I could relate to many of these cars on show today, several from my childhood. From the North Lawn we made our way past the house to the Atlas Fountain which looked a picture as it always does, I stopped to take several photographs before walking to the end of the South Lawn where a huge arena had been set up with trade stands, charity stands and food outlets. A full programme of events had been set up throughout the day, on our arrival several vintage cars were being paraded around the arena. A gentle walk around looking at some of these cars you start to understand the amount of time and money that the owners have spent restoring these vehicles to road worthy condition. 

By mid-afternoon we decided to head for home before the rush to the exits, it was a shame really as I would have liked to have seen some of the other displays which had been arranged for the afternoon. 

After driving through the Castle Howard Estate we came to the A64, the westbound traffic was stationary so we ended up driving south via Gate Helmsley to Murton via the ‘back road’. A lovely day out somewhat spoilt by the heavy traffic.