Over The Hill

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I've mentioned my Herefordshire links before in posts past, with my mother's family hailing from Fromes Hill, a small hamlet on the Worcester-Hereford road. One thing about the place I was totally unaware of until the last couple of days was that it hosted a renowned international hill-climb event between 1904 and 1907, with the last meeting's fastest time being set by Algernon Guinness - yes, that dynasty - driving a twenty-five-and-a-half litre V8 Darracq 200 that was used in world land speed record attempts on the flat. It was an over-square engine with cylinders the diameter of side plates, putting out 200 horsepower. And the whole damned car only weighed in at 990Kg, so it must have motored for its time. Interestingly, this puts the then sleepy little Herefordshire village in a notional race calendar including Saltburn, Blackpool, Scheveningen in Holland, Ostend in Belgium, and Gaillon, Benoite and Arles in France! You could even chuck in Daytona as well, as it was one of the venues where they attempted the world land speed record. Not bad company for a countryside village where even now the population is only around 350...

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