Sarah's Cottage, Isle of Man

View from Sarah's Cottage towards the Glen Helen area, with Ian Hutchinson cornering inside Ian Lougher in Senior TT during 2010, demonstrating that some places on the course have more variation in racing lines than others

Sarah's Cottage (Manx: Vaish or Ballavaish) is one of the named corners of the Snaefell Mountain Course used for the Isle of Man TT races. It is situated between the 9th and 10th Milestone road-side markers at Ballavaish on the primary A3 Castletown to Ramsey Road in the parish of German in the Isle of Man. A right-turning bend on the course, turning from a north-west direction to the north-east, it precedes Creg Willey's and Lambfell, (also known as Lambfell Moar).

View from Sarah's Cottage uphill towards the Creg Willey's area, with sidecars returning to Paddock in wrong direction after a Red Flag race stoppage caused by a competitor crash during 2009

A small stone cottage on was occupied by Sarah Corlett of Cronk Dhoo in about 1900. As part of The Long Round the journey from Castletown to Ramsey using the primary A3 road made by horse-drawn carriers and later by Charabanc many residents on the route provided food and by the roadside to travellers and the stop at Creg Willey's Hill by Sarah Corlett's cottage was a popular one for refreshments. The many hill-farms in the area also provided passing trade as school children attending the last school on the Isle of Man to still teach Manx Gaelic at the old Cronk-y-Voddy School and they referred to Sarah Corlett in Manx Gaelic as Sarah Vilyn ('Sarah of the Sweets').[1] The cottage is known as Sarah's by the many motorcycle enthusiasts who used the garden as a vantage point until becoming a spectator-prohibited area. The cottage was derelict until 1975 when James Henry Shuttleworth the Lord of Abergwili and his wife Betty, the Lady of Abergwili from Wirral arrived and totally renovated it and carried on the tradition of selling refreshments to passers by and taking in guests. Betty died in Peel on 14 April 1988 and Jim carried on living in Sarah's until he died peacefully on 24 October 2014.[2] The cottage remains in the Shuttleworth family.

The eponymous cottage is on the outside of the bend, visible ahead as the corner is approached from either direction. When the road is closed for racing, spectators are not allowed on a strip extending past Sarah's Cottage onward, on the outside of the bend.[3]

This corner was part of the Highland Course and Four Inch Course used for the Gordon Bennett Trial and Tourist Trophy car races held between 1904 and 1922. Sarah's Cottage was part of the St. John's Short Course used between 1907 and 1910, and the Snaefell Mountain Course used since 1911 for the Isle of Man TT and Manx Grand Prix motorcycle races.

During the 1965 Isle of Man TT Races, heavy rain and strong cross-winds on the A18 Mountain Road section of the course dominated the Senior TT. The notoriously difficult uphill section of the Mountain Course at Sarah's Cottage and the heavy rain and slippery conditions caused Giacomo Agostini to slide-off on lap 2 of the 1965 Senior TT Race. This was followed on lap 3 when his MV Agusta teammate, Mike Hailwood crashed at the same spot at Sarah's Cottage. The MV Agusta motor-cycle sustained damage including a broken windscreen, twisted handlebars and flattened exhaust megaphones on the left-hand side.[4] With torn leathers and a blooded nose, Mike Hailwood restarted the 1965 Isle of Man Senior TT Race and pitted on lap 4 to refuel and have the handlebar straightened. On lap 5 Hailwood made another unscheduled pit-stop to have a throttle-slide and part of a carburettor removed[5] and also a spark-plug changed. Despite the MV Agusta motorcycle running on 3 cylinders and the 4th cylinder fully open, Mike Hailwood won the 1965 Senior TT Race at an average race speed of 91.69 mph from Joe Dunphy in second place winning by a margin of 2 minutes despite the fall at Sarah's Cottage.

References

  1. ↑ Isle of Man Examiner pp5 dated 5 June 1970
  2. ↑ Isle of Man Examiner – Brialtagh Ellan Vannin page 53 Isle of Man Newspapers Ltd (2014) Johnson Press Publishing – Sheffield Web 4 November 2014
  3. ↑ "IOMTT Prohibited and Restricted Areas: Part I" (PDF). p. 37.
  4. ↑ Dail Mail pp9 dated 19 June 1965
  5. ↑ Liverpool Daily Post pp4 dated 19 June 1965

External links

Coordinates: 54°13′40″N 4°37′12″W / 54.22778°N 4.62000°W / 54.22778; -4.62000

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