The Morgan Sports Car Club was formed in 1951 as the ‘4/4 Club’. The focus was on racing, rallying and treasure hunts. The social side did not start to develop properly until the 1960’s. The London Centre was formed around 1965, followed by the Northern Centre in 1968. The East Anglian Centre (now AngleMog) appeared on the scene in about 1969, being listed as a centre in ‘Miscellany’ in 1970. It was in 1970 that members voted for the club name to change to the ‘Morgan Sports Car Club’.
Over the years other regional groups formed and it was reported in Miscellany in May 1979 that the North West Norfolk Centre had had an encouraging start with its first meeting on March 16th. Two Morgans were present but various other members attended, including Roger Comber who later went on to become the centre secretary. The organisers for this inaugural meeting were Betty and John Fillingham from Wisbech. By June, Iain Warner had joined and who is still a member, along with Ian Steele who was a regular until his move up north a few years back.
Centre events centred around the joys of owning Morgan’s and motoring, with convoys to Mog events, motor races supporting the Morgan series, participation in sprints and trials, and visits to the Mildenhall Air Show, Worstead Festival and similar mechanical and motoring related happenings. The Christmas do’s and ‘Meals on Wheels’ were a huge success.
Eastern Counties Morgan owners tended to be somewhat eccentric characters, at least in the early days! This led to all sorts of diversions; a hat stand was always prominent at track-side picnics and there was a shared interest in all things mechanical, such as gramophones. The enjoyment of playing records grew (no downloads in those days), and members became very fond of the comic records of Frank Crumit, who was an American Vaudeville performer and an inspiration for our own George Formby. As the Centre lacked a distinctive name and other areas had adopted catchy brands names such as JockMog, BogMog and SexMog, a decision was made to become CrumMog!
The centre has had its ups and downs and was in a ‘low’ period in early 1995 when the secretaryship passed to Chris Dady. It was agreed at this time to change the name to ‘FolkMog’, representing the folk in Norfolk and Suffolk and much more appropriate to the area.
The meeting register was begun so there is now a detailed log of events stretching back to March 1995 – the latest book is always available at meetings and members and visitors are encouraged to note their attendance!
In the 1980’s 4 or 5 cars was a good turnout for the centre. Under the direction of Chris followed by a long and diligent stint by Maurice Cook and his wife Eileen, the centre went from strength to strength with meetings having 30 cars on occasions. When Maurice retired, the Centre Secretary role was taken by Alan Biddlecombe. He was succeeded by Ian Charity, who in turn was succeeded by Alan Braithwaite (now our chairman) and then Rob Davies. Steve Wilson, our current Centre Secretary was elected in September 2022.
In 2019 the centre ran the national MOG event – under the title the Victory Run – Morgans in Nelson’s County. It was a huge success with c.450 cars attending from all over the country and with the pandemic and economics was the last of the large-scale MOGs to be run.
The membership list is now around 150. Events often see 25 to 30 cars and up to 60 people. We run around 25-35 events every year and that includes a FolkMog holiday to either or both another area of the UK or to a European destination. Our meetings are held all over Norfolk and Suffolk, and sometimes further afield. Details of events are posted to the centre’s MeWe site which is interactive, and can be joined by invitation.
Our members together own the full range of Morgans by both model and age: from elderly Morgan Three Wheelers to Aero 8s, with Flat Rads, 4/4s, Plus 4s, Plus 8s and Roadsters. Just possibly eccentricity is no longer an essential qualification for membership, but only others can make that judgement.