File: 2022001-0078
Castlemorton Common, near Welland, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom. Photographs were taken in the afternoon of Tuesday 1st February 2022.
About this photograph.
This is a 2005 registered Land Rover Freelander, it is a 2.0 Td4 SE model, with manual gearbox. At that time of taking the photos, with BF Goodrich T/A KO 2 All Terrain tyres on steel wheels.
I bought her in 2017 after my first car, a Ford Focus was struggling to cope with uphill, mainly because the engine was so damaged. Also, another reason was because myself and my two teenager kids were tall people, and the Focus was rather cramped for us.
The reason why I chose the Freelander was because I wanted a 4x4 SUV, not for serious off-roading, but because sometimes when going out to do photography, I would need to go off the road, onto muddy tracks to reach a perfect location for photo-shoots. Also, I may need to go out when there is snow if I needed a winter type of photo-shoot, as well as the fact that my mother lived on an uphill street. (This Freelander is more effect at going downhill than my old Focus.)
Being British, I can’t help it if I prefer the Land Rover brand. The Freelander is a cheaper and entry-level Land Rover, which is good enough for me, as I’m not likely to afford nor needed the capacities of a Defender or a Discovery. Also, I’m not planning on extreme off-roading, just basic muddy tracks or snowed surfaces, and this Freelander serves me well for my needs.
This year (2022) is the 5th anniversary of my ownership of this Freelander, which is why I decision to take her out to Castlemorton Common and take some photos of her. Plus my Nikon D200 recently had its sensor cleaned professionally and I needed to do some test shots to see how it is.
The photo below is of the old Ford Focus a couple of days before I exchanged for the Freelander, the photo was taken at the same area, not necessary in the same spot.
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/132335712@N05/49902027327/]
For details about the location, see below, in the About Castlemorton Common section, under the About the overall subject(s) part.
About the overall subject(s).
About the Freelander.
In the United Kingdom during the later 1980s, British Aerospace bought the Rover Group. The Rover cars team and the Land Rover team, each wanted to put forwards a new idea. Rover cars wanted to pitch for an idea of a MPV, inspired by the Renault Espace. Land Rover on the other hand, wanted to put forth an idea for a compact 4x4 lifestyle SUV, based on the Suzuki Vitara.
The Rover and the Land Rover teams worked on their ideas separately until they were co-housed together, and it became known as the Pathfinder Project. British Aerospace wanted a collaboration with other car makers to save on costs, and Hyundai joined as development partner. The project was then renamed as Oden, and it stumbled on for a while until 1993.
In October 1993, at the Tokyo Motor Show, Toyota showed off its new RAV-4 model. Inspired by the RAV-4, the Oden project team came up with a prototype, and it was given a codename of CB40.
By 1994, the German car maker BMW bought the Rover Group. BMW could see a potential in the CB40 project and encouraged Land Rover team to develop it further. Land Rover wanted CB40 to be the kind of Land Rover for new customers who never before thought about owning and driving a 4x4. It was to be developed into a compact SUV that feels like a car while on road, but can do light and simple off-roading, for the kind of drivers who don’t want to do extreme off-roading.
The CB40 had gone through various engine designs, mostly those build for Rover cars, like the K-Series and engines supplied by BMW, like the BMW M47. It was also designed to come in either a 3-door or 5-door variations, both with a side-opening tail door. The 3-door Sport models also came with either a hard top or a soft top.
The Freelander was originally going to be called Land Rover Highlander, but another company owns the trademarked name, so the production management had to think of another name, and thus the Freelander name was born, just in time for its launch in 1997.
About Castlemorton Common.
Castlemorton is a smaller village and civil parish close to Welland, a larger village just north of Castlemorton. Those two villages are roughly to the south-southeast of Malvern, in the Malvern Hills District, somewhere around the southwest part of Worcestershire.
Castlemorton Common is an area of fields roughly only about one and half miles northwest of the Castlemorton village. It is an area mostly popular with walkers and hikers, often leading up towards parts of the Malvern Hills between British Camp and Hollybush. On a good sunny day, the view is often a beauty, and there are often plenty of sheep around.
In May 1992, the Castlemorton Common hits the news headlines and became a media interest and controversy involving an illegal festival.
As more and more New Age travellers arrived, the crowd swelled into at latest between 20,000 to 40,000 people, and they held what was then called Castlemorton Common Festival. The ravers had partied during the week, and made national headlines due to the mess and damages they did to the Common.
It only lasted a week, and never happened again.
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