Phil Loder finds an MVT club event taking place on the edge of the estate where Winston Churchill grew up
While the big military vehicle shows provide spectacle, local club events can bring together an interesting mix of vehicles. Members of the North Oxfordshire and Cotswolds branch of the Military Vehicle Trust gathered recently at Combe Mill, near Oxford, with vehicles that dated from World War One to the 1970s.
Combe Mill is the original sawmill and workshop for the Blenheim Palace Estate and now operates as a working industrial museum. Blenheim Palace was the birthplace of Winston Churchill and he spent his childhood there, returning during holidays from his boarding schools and from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. While many expect Churchill to have been buried in Westminster Abbey, his grave is actually with other members of the Churchill family at the parish church in the village of Bladon, a couple of miles from the mill.
The military vehicles were assembled in an open area at the entrance to the museum within sight of the River Evenlode, which powers the mill’s waterwheel. Owners had brought everything from a 1915 Ford Model The vehicle. A CJ2A from 1947 had enough…
