Siddeley's come home to Kenilworth Castle for Father's Day

If you are looking for the perfect day out for your dad – and the rest of the family! – this Father’s Day (Sunday 20 June), then Kenilworth Castle has got just the event – a classic car rally and birthday party, as the Armstrong Siddeley Owners Club celebrates its 50th anniversary at the castle which shared the same owner!

For one day only, over 40 vintage Siddeley cars will be on display around Kenilworth Castle’s grounds, highlighting one of the most prosperous eras in West Midlands’ automotive construction. The Armstrong Siddeley was – and still is – regarded as a car well ahead of its time, a luxury vehicle which was favourably compared to the ultimate luxury car, the Rolls Royce! Visitors will be able to mingle with the cars’ owners and find out about the company and the vehicles, and join in some of the party games that the Club has organised, from making a steel ball roll up hill to fun activities which will see parents made to ‘walk the plank’!

“This is a wonderful event for Father’s Day, reuniting these vehicles with the site that many owners think of as their ‘spiritual home’,” says English Heritage’s regional sales and marketing manager, Lucy Dhiman. “It is a great honour to have so many of these luxury cars on display at Kenilworth Castle – a fantastic way for them to celebrate their 50th anniversary and a wonderful opportunity for the castle to celebrate one of its most gracious patrons.”

Kenilworth Castle was purchased by John Davenport Siddeley in 1937, a local entrepreneur who had made his fortune in the automotive industry. Cars bearing his name were produced for over 50 years, from the earliest models from 1902 to some of the most luxurious cars of the 1950s, with the last vehicle – and a model that visitors will be able to see on Father’s Day - rolling off the production line in 1960. Vehicles will be attending from every corner of the UK, being driven up from London and the South Coast, and even one coming over from Holland as part of the Owners Club’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

The event at Kenilworth Castle will be the largest collection of Siddeley vehicles that anyone can see in the UK this year! The event runs from 11.00am to 5.00pm on Sunday 20 June, with the castle and Elizabethan Garden opening one hour earlier at 10.00am. Admission prices are £7.60 for adults, £6.50 for concessions and £3.80 for children, or £19.00 for a family ticket (two adults and three children).

For more details, please call 01926 852078 or visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/kenilworth

ENDS

For further media information, please contact: Jay Commins PRO – English Heritage Tel: 0113 251 5698 Mob: 07810 546567 Email: jay@fim.org.uk