Pie and a pint – but no pie! …. Just thinking back to the 1981 RAC Rally called to mind one particularly busy day and hectic schedule scuttling around Yorkshire trying to find stage finishes, get parked and then hastily interview drivers for quotes and comments before rushing off to find a phonebox and phone the tales back to the Media Centre in Rally HQ at Chester.
We finished up late one night at Langdale End village somewhere in the Dalby forest. There was no phone box but there was a pub, the Moorcock Inn, and it had a phone. So we phoned from there on the proviso that we paid for the call and bought some sustenance. Unfortunately there was no hot food, we were too late, but the landlady offered to make some sandwiches.
At least the beer was drinkable for when the sandwiches arrived the bread was stale and the cheese was mouldy. Did we complain? No chance! There was a broom propped up in the corner and a black cat sat by the open fire. Perhaps we were lucky to be too late for hot food, I hate to think what might have been stirred in the fireside cauldron – certainly not soup of the day!
I don’t know if that was the landlady herself, Mrs Martindale, who served us, but she certainly looked as though she had racked up a few thousand miles in her time – without the use of an aeroplane.
As for Langdale End, it is well named, although I think the actual name was shortened from – Langdale End of the World!
One other thing, we were ready for a pee when we left so we asked about the facilities. We didn’t bother – there were plenty of trees out there any way!
Thus ‘fortified’ it was back to the hive of activity that was Rally HQ to check in and give the wee Ford Escort 1300 a chance to cool down. We left it ticking away in the car park and I’m sure I heard a sigh as went into the hotel.
