The Birmingham Car Storage adventure

The Birmingham Car Storage adventure: a welcome drive on a beautiful day.

One of the great things about running a cleaning company in Malvern is the great number of people you get to meet. Malvern Cleaners can count some extremely interesting people amongst our list of regulars, to the extent that I say, only half in jest, that should I put on a networking event in Malvern then it would perhaps become a notable annual event, even surpassing Davos.

I exaggerate of course, but meeting people across a range of different professions is one of the key benefits of my job, and one that can yield unexpected pleasures.

Last Thursday was one such pleasure. A client of mine was returning his classic car to long term car storage in Warwickshire, and needed a lift back to his office not far from Birmingham. He drove up in his Morgan, and I followed in my more humble, though perhaps more comfortable, Honda. At 13.00 in the afternoon, with the hottest part of the day before us, the roads were thankfully empty of traffic. A tractor on the A422 just past Flyford Favell was the only impediment to our journey, and we broke it at The Blue Boar Inn, just off the A46. It was a place of my choosing, as some years ago I had attended a party there (a best friend's Stag Do) and wanted to see what I could recall of the place and judge how it had changed. Set away amongst the fields and under the empty July sky, and with a cold soft drink in my hand in the shade of an umbrella, I pleasantly decided that it hadn't changed much, or if it had, then I couldn't note the difference and what had changed had changed for the better.

After all, with a Morgan sitting prominently in the car park, and a Honda parked slightly askew to take the best advantage of the shade, it was one of those few days where you couldn't feel guilty about letting the hours pass in happy reflection. There was no yearn for the keyboard and a glaring screen and an unforgiving chair. No pressing urgency for that call back. How could there be when the swallows were putting on their acrobatic displays overhead, racing from field to nest and back again?

It was a day which was invented for summer!

After our pit stop we carried on and turned north, with the sun now behind us, chasing our own shadows as we managed to miss Warwick and turn left toward Kenilworth, and our first destination: The Majestic Car Storage Company!

“Security is paramount in classic car storage.”

I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about cars. I struggle to tell one from the other and if anyone asked me to describe one after witnessing an accident or robbery I would start my description with the colour, and then offer a long pause. But this long held perspective of mine was pleasantly challenged by the cars on display before us. I should mention that when we dropped off the Morgan, we did so at the restoration shop, a sister company of the car storage firm, and owned by the same individual. The car storage facility for Majestic is actually offsite, within an hour's drive, at a hush-hush location and monitored by 24/7 CCTV. It has to be, given the number of classic cars that are stored under the long term garaging arrangement. Security is paramount!

But nonetheless, the restoration facility seemed more interesting to me. I have a mild interest in Meccano and the like, so when I see a car with its innards all on display and held up on a rack like a recently sacrificed Transformer, I do admit to feeling the draw of that ancient question: "What does this bit do?"

Well, with the Morgan handed over, the classic car was ready for storage, and we were able to continue on our way, with a quick stop at an office in the Birmingham area before making it back to Leigh Sinton in time for a pint at the Royal Oak.

Oh, and my reward for doing the driving for my client? I knew you'd ask that. Next year, when the skies brighten and the sun marches higher each day, I will be first in line for a day trip in the classic car when it is released from its storage, with a meal thrown in too.

And it would only be polite to recommend Majestic and their Classic Car Storage company, should any of you want to store a motorbike or car (of any sorts) for any long period.