The Wolseley Register’s 2025 National Rally was held over the weekend of 16-17 August at the Beamish Museum in County Durham, which is an open-air museum on a vast 350 acre site, telling the story of life in the North East with reconstructed buildings and exhibits from the 1820s through to the latest 1950s town.
There is so much to see at the museum that most members decided to spend both days of the weekend at the venue. However, some chose to also visit other nearby attractions on either the Friday or the Monday, including both Tanfield Railway and The National Trust property Gibside.
Wolseleys up to 1960 were eligible to drive round the full Beamish circuit a couple of times on each day, which was hugely popular both with the member owners and with the general public.
In addition, Beamish also allowed all of our Wolseley owners to drive onto ‘The Street’ for period photographs after the public had departed, which was again very popular with the members!
Sunday was the main rally event, with about 55 Wolseleys and other classics on show. Members came from all over the UK, the Netherlands and even Australia. We also had an original factory pre production mock up of a 6/90 on show! The cars were lined up in classes of models, and members went along the classes, voting for their various class winners and best in shows. Presentations were made at the end of the day.
Most members stopped at the the Beamish Park Hotel, its sister hotel, the Gibside Hotel, and other local hotels. The main National Rally dinner was held on Saturday evening at the Beamish Park, attended by over 90 members, a record number! The Beamish Park also hosted a post-rally buffet on the Sunday evening. The Beamish Park did the Register proud with its superb food and catering throughout the long weekend.
The 2025 National Rally was certainly a huge success, held in a fantastic venue, with excellent accomodation and beautiful weather. Roll on the 2026 rally!