VWs at the Palace
On Sunday I made my first visit to the annual VW & Mini show at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. The magnificent home of the First Duke of Marlborourgh was built in the early 1700s and has been used as a location in many films including the recent Gulliver’s Travels staring Jack Black.
Due to bad weather, the show had been moved from the grass to the large hardstanding area in front of the house which, from a photography point of view, was an excellent decision! I got there at half ten and had to queue for 15 minutes to get in, so very busy with lots of people visiting for the day, helped I’m sure by some sunshine.
There were plenty of Volkswagens (and Minis) on display both outside the palace and on either side of the road leading down to the bridge, nothing particularly old apart from a couple of 60′s split screen campers and handful of similarly aged beetles.One of my favourites has to be the red and cream split screen bus belonging to Terry Lee from Bloxham. A random selection of trade stands, mostly Mini related, were situated at the front entrance. The only one that tempted me to spend some cash was a burger van at lunch time!
I think the palace makes an excellent backdrop for classic cars and it’s a shame that they don’t allow cars to be displayed there more often. Maybe this will be the start of a new permanent show area. We’ll see what happens next year!
Amazing images! I especially like the one with the girl sitting on the bumper of the yellow camper. Clean, simple, perfect. Thanks for sharing these wonderful photos.
Kevin
Thanks Kevin,
We’re fortunate to have some very picturesque locations for many of the VW shows in the UK. It too a while to get that picture of the yellow camper as there was a steady stream of people walking past it!
just discovered your photographs, which include my 1968 Karmann Ghia, she’s called Murtle, your photographs are beautiful, Blenheim was a brilliant day so thanks for the reminder of it!
Hi, Thanks, glad you like the photos. That’s a great KG you have. It was a nice show in a great location.
Hi Malc – just found your page – fantastic images!
Kind regards,
Terry Lee, Bloxham.
Hi Terry,
Glad you like them! As I said above, I think you red bus Katie was my favourite VW there. I’m not too far from you in Brackley. I’m sure I’ll see you at some other shows. Do you attend any local classic car shows?
Malc