MG Car Club marks 25 years at Kimber House with open day

The MG Car Club is holding an open day to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of returning to its spiritual home in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

The open day on Saturday, May 23, will welcome both club members and non-members, giving visitors the opportunity to tour the club’s collection of MG memorabilia and talk to former factory workers. And, of course, it’s a chance to celebrate the MGCC’s 85^th birthday.

Kimber House will be open from 10am-4pm, offering an opportunity to see some of the unique items that form perhaps the largest archive of MG memorabilia in the world.

There will also be refreshments available and the club’s shop will be open. Alongside the celebrations at Kimber House, the nearby White Horse Public House is holding an MG day with live music, food and classic cars on display.

Those looking to make a weekend of it could also sign up for the Old Speckled Hen Run. Now in its 23^rd year, the run sets out from Radley College in Abingdon, and heads out on a route around the town.

Before moving to Kimber House, the club was based in the administration block of the famous car factory from 1930 to 1969.

When it became independent of the manufacturer at the end of the 1960s, it was cast into a nomadic existence.

That was until the property at 12 Cemetery Road, Abingdon, came up for sale. Situated so close to the club’s first home and the car factory itself, it was an ideal location to lay down some new roots.

After a massive fund-raising drive, the property was purchased. A year of hard work by volunteers and members followed and in 1990 the club’s new home was ready.

Thanks to a massive fund raising drive by club members, the building was purchased, along with number 11, in 1989.

In 2010 the Club added the John Thornley Suite, named in honour of MG’s former managing director, adding some valuable space to Kimber House’s floor space.