Rudgwick Steam and Country Show 2008

So, much relaxed by four days sat in a (not too rainy/muddy) field in West Sussex, we got there really early on Friday morning thanks to a herculean effort on the part of Flyingpops (last Thursday night) to get the show shopping done and drop off our faulty laptop to laptop hospital so we didn't have to wait until after opening time to set off...we stopped only briefly to fill up Colin the Camper with unleaded and grab a few newspapers...found the site very easily (with thanks to the Tomtom) driving past (what we discovered later was) Jim Davidson's mansion on the way, very impressive...had a bit of a mad scramble to find our paper work and then we were in, found our spot (right inbetween Flyingpops' folks and Grandad)...set up took about 2 hours, then all we had to do was relax -

- it's nice to be on site so early, wandering round you can watch everyone else setting up -



- and enjoy the calm before the storm...

It's an interesting show, this one...usually all the various categories of exhibits are grouped together, here things are really shaken up, there are three fields and each of them contain a number of each of the sorts of attractions, so a little bit of steam, a few vehicles and a few displays, only the shops, crafts and fun fair being traditionally grouped, and while this meant that it was a trek to find the people you normally camp near it did keep things interesting for visitors (not just being faced with, say, just a great big field full of tractors, for example)...it is also the only show I have ever been to that has a public footpath running right through the middle of it(!) -


- meaning at any point (had there not been hoards of Sea Cadet guards lining it constantly) anyone could have just wandered in and hopped over a stile into the show without paying their £7 entry fee...

It's a fairly small site (comparitively), not being on anything like the scale of Ardingly or Laughton, but I think this works in it's favour as it feels incredibly busy, you literally can't stop finding interesting things to look at, hoards of animals (which you rarely see at any of these shows, being more the preserve of the agricultural circuit) -






- Longbow archery -


- remote controlled boats (the poor guys took all their boats to Ardingly earlier in the year and had no pond to play in)!



A (rather noisy) twice-daily Wild West show -


- which taught me a number of useful tricks, like remembering not to try drawing on anyone already pointing a gun at me (despite what I had seen in the movies), and never ever to turn my back on a prone enemy (even if I had already shot them) as they might not *quite* be dead...

Plenty of stalls in the shopping area selling all sorts of things -





- as well as offering you the chance to smash things up -

- then enjoy a drink in the huge beer tent (a reasonable selection of real ales) -

- listening to the (seemingly never-ending) selection of double entendre laden songs on offer by the "New Forest Plonkers"...

A magic show/Punch and Judy -

Displays of ploughing (both ancient and modern) -


...and using steam to slice up logs -



- not to mention the fun fair -



- and even a drag racing bike from Santa Pod (oddly combining two of our hobbies)!

...and all completed with the minimum of mud -

A really good weekend...even when the rain threatened the car park still filled completely up and we had a constant stream of visitors...so I think we'll be back again next year...only downside was no commemorative plaque for attending to add to our board...oh well, we'll live..! ;)

Off to Rudgwick!

Really looking forward to tomorrow, we've bracketed the weekend with holiday and are going to exhibit at the "Rudgwick Steam and Country show" (don your trip-a-tron shades before you click that link, it's a bit "exciting" in the colour department)...

So the camper van is largely packed (as of last weekend actually), just got to throw in the fridge and a few changes of clothes and we are all set...! The weather report isn't looking too bad either (worst day looks like Sunday with "light showers", best day is Saturday with "Sunny" and 21 degrees)...last thing to do tonight will be to made sure all the batteries are charged on everything...

Can't wait... ;)

Kingsfold Vintage Vehicle Show 2007

...and so, to just a few of the sights and sounds of the Kingsfold show which took place over the weekend, we went along yesterday...

...oh and no, I don't think this was one of the exhibits (or if it was, it's needing a little in the way of restoration ;)

As a show, from what I read, it's only just celebrating it's 9th year in existence, so you can't hope to expect the same scale as Laughton or Ardingly, but it's still fairly well populated (even if not in huge numbers) by a group of displays of collections (mostly the usual suspects) -

- a superb collection of extremely unusual motorbikes/trikes -

- including one (that certainly appears to have been) made from an old VW Beetle chassis (*sharp intake of breath*) -

- a group who celebrate the past and present of banger racing -


- not that I suppose there is ever much left over of previously used vehicles (in that particular trade) to bring along to the shows... ;)

...lots of classics cars, in various states of restoration -


- or occupation -

- the big boys with their toys (Hello Al!) -

- a handful of stalls and rides (very little autojumble, mostly commercial or charity ) -


- but a bit in the way of home-made or local food (not the burger vans!) -


- a few bits of steam (both big, and small) -

- (if slightly disproportionately endowed in the chimney department in some cases, well, you know what they say about owning a flashy vehicle ;) -


- probably one of the biggest collections of static engines you can hope to find (although there is always a very good showing at most of the summer events from these guys) -

- loads of tractors (despite the fact there aren't any fields to plough at this show) and then some downright "interesting" other things too -

- late year sheep shearing (although they only managed one of them as the rest ran off) -

- the Sussex VW club managed to sneak in to camp (along with a few Land Rover owners, a fire engine and a handful of military vehicles) -

- a "del boy" van conversion into a single berth camper complete with bed, stove and cupboards(!) -

- and a very interesting tractor-trike...oh, and lots and lots of this kind of thing -

- but more on that later perhaps... :)