AN annual test for vintage motorcycles over hill and dale in the North-East has moved dates by a week.

The 46th Beamish Trophy Trial will now take place on Sunday September 16, but starting and finishing, as ever, from The Board Inn pub, in Hill Top, Esh Village, near Durham.

Organisers, from The Vintage Motorcycle Club’s South Durham Section, have issued a statement informing entrants of the date change.

It reads: “We have been forced by events outwith our control to move the date for the 46th Beamish Trophy Trial.

“It will now be held on Sunday September 16, 2018.

“We can only apologise to entrants and hope this does not cause too much inconvenience.

“However, we were left with no alternative due to a clash of dates with another club’s event.”

The event, which began in the early 1970s, is a recreation of the early motorcycling trials of the inter-war years, and follows a 120-mile route taking in the northern dales in Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland.

It is both an on and off-road test of rider and machine, with several country sections slong the way.

The trial was begun by the Friends of Beamish Museum, but after 27 years was taken over by the Durham Classic Motorcycle Club, and since 2008 has been run by the South Durham club.