Imp National 1999
IMP NATIONAL WEEKEND 1999
Hatton Country Park
Hatton
Warwick
Warwickshire
29th July – 3nd August
Birmingham Area Centre
About the Venue
Hatton Country World was advertised as easily accessible from all major routes and only five minutes’ drive from junction 15, M40. The host of activities on offer included a craft and antiques village, farm park and marked Canal side walks. Food and drink was available from the Greedy Pig Restaurant and from the on site grocery shop.
The Weekend timetable
Additional information included in the programme was how to recognise some of the organisers. One of the descriptions was “Graham – Blond hair & loud trousers”. It might be 20 years ago but it is probably true to say that a lot of Imp Club Members would still be able to spot Graham at a national using this description!
As can be seen from the programme above the weekend included many of the traditional National activities with some new ones added on:
- Scenic tours
- Autojumble
- Trade stands
- Barbecue
- Raffle
- Scalextric competition
- Limerick Competition
There was a young nymph coloured blue,
Who in winter had not much to do,
She sat on the drive,
But in spring came alive,
And off to the National she flew!
- Raffle
- Sunday car display
Prize-winners from Sunday Line-up
Rosemary Smith awarded her perpetual trophy to John, winner of the Rally class. John had been trying to sell this car all weekend and was stunned when he scooped ‘the big one’ – the car was probably worth a few bob more after winning this prize!
A few more photos
And finally – after the weekend
From the write-ups published in Impressions after Imp 99 it seems that the event was very well received – a few of the comments referred to it being ‘a scorcher’, ‘the best showers yet’ and referencing ‘6 gallons of cider flowing at one of the trader stands’! Another comment was that ‘it took two and a half hours to get from the marquee to their tent due to people stopping for a chat’.
On a more serious note there was an appeal by one member for more members to write into Impressions:
‘Can I plead with fellow Impers to make an effort and write to impressions? I witnessed hundreds of imps over the weekend and know that each has a story to tell… So please let’s hear them! We dont all have access to the internet (or even want to) – I look forward to impressions landing on my doormat every month. Just write a page or two – you don’t have To be Wilbur Smith, the editors can edit it (they do fine job with mine!).‘
This appeal holds true even more so to day with the advance of the internet. If you’ve got some interesting stories or photos for Impressions then please contact our editor through the committee contacts page.
Many thanks to those members who have provided photos and information about this and other Nationals – without you these pages would not exist.
