Bronte Stag Weekend 2011

British Car Day & Bronte Stag Party 2011

Bronte Park British Car Day was a spectacular success once again thanks to the Toronto Triumph Club and their organization; the registration was speeded up this year by the pre-registered process also by road improvements at the entrance to the park. TSUSA members made a good showing with 13 Stags present on the weekend.

Friday consisted of a scenic tour of the Niagara Escarpment together with a walking tour of Grimsby Beach Heritage Village. This is a pretty little settlement of quaint homes built set on the shore of Lake Ontario and started out as a Methodist Church camp in 1870's but became a village of permanent residences late last century. The homes are extremely colorful and similar to a settlement on Martha's Vineyard I'm told. Today there is an amazing array of brightly colored houses which we found is a very tight knit community. We had no trouble finding local residents to talk with; they just appeared and were glad to tell us the history of their homes and the history of the settlement.

From there we stopped for lunch in Fifty Point Conservation Park at the Landings Restaurant on the shore of Lake Ontario, a lovely place to spend a while over lunch watching the boats in the marina.

Following this we made a stop at the Museum of Steam and Technology in Hamilton which is the site of the original water pumping station for the city and which helped with the industrial development of the city. The original pump, which has been restored, is impressive with it's huge flywheel and massive style.

Saturday was another scenic country tour to Crawford Lake Indian Village, home to the Iroquois tribes many years ago. Several hundred Iroquois were estimated to have lived in this location in typical Long Houses several hundred years ago ( estimated in the 1400's ). A unique feature of this park is Crawford Lake as it is deep and sheltered from wind and streams. By virtue of this it houses a bounty of history below 40 feet as it is preserved virtually indefinitely ( termed a meromictic lake), total depth is approx. 60 feet. This enables scientists to observe some of the features of the area going back many years, they can determine crops and wildlife of the area.

Saturday lunch was prepared by Lynda Hill and Michelle Fox and just about everything disappeared, they followed the Indian theme by serving corn on the cob with succotash, sausage and local peppers. Lynda's garden made everyone very welcome for the lunch. This year we had the Saturday evening banquet catered at the Admiral's Inn so that guests could be close to home for the evening, the food was outstanding too.

Sunday of course was the show day in Bronte Creek Provincial Park and again was a smash with beautiful sunny weather with warm temperatures. The set up was again well done by the Toronto Triumph club where ample space was reserved for our Stags. A crowning point was a fly past of our local Avro Lancaster WW2 bomber, one of the two remaining flying in the world. The sound of four Merlin engines overhead was enough to send a shiver down your back, just terrific.

The winners of this year's show, which is a participant's choice award, went as follows; 1st place Pat & Tamara Barber of Detroit; 2nd place to Matthew & Colin West of Brampton; and 3rd place to Anthea & Steve Turner of Brooklin ON.

Pat Barber's Stag surely deserved first place as it looked better than new. More significantly, he had rebuilt the whole car in approximately 9 months following a collision with a deer (Stag meets Stag) on the way back home from the VTR in Jekyll Island last year. They had already received a first place award at the VTR event in Breconridge CO a couple of weeks earlier this summer, just an incredible effort. So, once again we had a wonderful weekend meeting old friends and some new ones to enjoy their Stags. We are already thinking about plans for next year. To make things more effective for the hotel and caterer we will introduce a registration form for booking meals, this will enable everyone to have an accurate head count.

Tony Fox

Grimsby Beach Historic Village

Lunch at The Landings Restaurant
50 Point Marina

Crawford Lake Indian Village

BBQ Lunch by Michelle Fox and Lynda Hill

Toronto Triumph Club
British Car Day