Eastnor Vintage Day 2014

18 June 2014

 

We held our vintage day over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend and attracted over 3000 visitors over 2 days.  Although we do not aspire to compete with the great vintage weekend at Goodwood, The Goodwood Revival; we invite a reasonable range of historic vehicles along and the variety appeals to our public.  We received a generous review afterwards on Trip Advisor, which was very nice.

It is certainly not a festival of speed either, rather the opposite, with steam and diesel rollers (max speed perhaps 5mph), a Foden 5 ton wagon (max speed not much more) and a large traction engine, a re-import from Tasmania, and my Ransomes Sims & Jefferies 1915 8 3/4 ton agricultural traction engine, which was spontaneously pressed into work shown in the image.  The tug of war is always popular as it is, at least on one side, a team game, with simple rules and little need for fitness and training, in fact, being slightly overweight may help.  There are 3 pulls, and this time the engine was beaten 2:1.  In an earlier competition, one or two visitors slipped on the gravel, not a 'fair' surface on which to compete, though it is a level playing field in the strict sense, and there were some grazed knees, but luckily not this time.

Other exhibits included the estate Morris 28hp petrol lorry, an Austin 7, a Stanley steam car, two living and one showman's vans and hand-driven carousel.  There was a guest appearance from a Mini club, with some fine traditional Minis and a few spun-off designs.   My own Foden 6 to the steam tractor was not available as it is still away recovering from the fitting of a majorly repaired boiler, the first since new in 1928.  I hope it will be the star of the show next year.

J H-B   14 June '14