The History of The Morris Minor Club East Kent

(a pub by pub account)

As told by our honorable chairman- Keith Arnold.

"It all started in Nov 1978, yes! that's 28 years ago this November!

The Bishops Finger

Two teachers named Clare Jones & Marjorie Wheatley, both Morris Minor owners, got together with a prison officer named John Tooth and some other like minded MM owners following an add in the National club magazine to meet on the second Tuesday of the month in the back room of the Bishops Finger Pub in Canterbury.

I joined this motley crew in Jan / Feb 1979 closely followed by John Cross, George Everest and Tony Larkins. We carried on in an informal manner for some six months, or so, discussing spares cars for sale, problems, and all things Minor. We then decided to form a committee and vote in a chairman, treasurer, and secretary.

Tony Larkins was first chairman, with yours truly as treasurer and Clare Jones as secretary. It was about this time- summer 1979 that we undertook the National London to Brighton run, and in those days had no trouble fielding 10-15 cars to other shows in the local area; Waldershere being one, the Cobweb another.

The White Horse

In 1984 we moved from the Bishops Finger to the White Horse at Bridge because our meeting room became a restaurant following a change of management. During our stay at the White Horse, long time member Dave Biddle organised some talks and slide shows given by some "friends" of his in the force!! The talk on illegal drugs, I can clearly remember to this day due to the horrific photographs of the consequences of drug abuse! We had a couple of happy years the Horse with numbers growing all the time- and the MM owners getting younger!

The Queens Head, Boughton.

We then moved to the back room of the Queens Head, where we stayed for thirteen years. During this time various building works took place around us! We changed our meeting to the first Monday of the Month, so as not to clash with the Bat and Trap nights. We continued to organise talks, lectures and slide shows:- real live owls, customs officers, Police, A.A., I.A.M., Guide dogs, etc etc. Tony Larkins retired as chairman after 10 years, and I was elevated to this lofty position with John Cross as treasurer and Roni Lithgow as secretary.

Roni was followed by Phil Edwards, then Roy Dowley, Andrew Paramour stepped in and organised our first newsletter as well as taking on the role of Secretary. The lovely "Liz-the-Landlady" retired in October 1997 and we stayed at the Queens head until the new Landlord installed a large screen TV and associated followers of football!!!

The Westbere Butts Hotel

We could not compete & and quickly had to find another venue. In March- April 1998 we moved to the Westbere Butts Hotel. Our Numbers now hover around the 50 mark which compares favorably with our sister clubs in Kent. Mid Kent has around 60 and west Kent only 20 members. We now have regular contact with our sister clubs through organisation of the Hop (now in year seven) plus our Bat and Trap challenge which is becoming more serious year by year.

Although numbers of cars attending rallies has fallen off over the years, the enthusiasm of members and friendliness of meetings remains excellent and is a tribute to all those who make the EKMM club one of the oldest affiliated clubs in the UK.

(So it's a 26 year pub crawl around Kent in Morris Minors then. . . . :-)

Webmasters club history update

In 2004, due to rapidly increasing numbers of members at monthly EKMM meetings, we had to find a much larger venue as the back room at the Westbere Butts was getting somewhat crowded due to the success of the club. We now have 60+ members and are the largest local branch in Kent able to field 15-20 cars at many local rallies. Therefore from 2004 we hold our monthly meetings at the Grove Ferry inn at Grove Ferry. Some of the new younger members told me that they found out about the club via the internet and this web site! Hence the long overdue update. Grove Ferry Inn is an excellent venue, being quite central for the East Kent area. There is plenty of car parking space for members to park their Moggies and the restaurant area that we have use of is a decent size. In fact, if it was any larger, Keith would need amplification to be heard! The beer is good and its a bit closer to home for me. See you there!

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