Abbey Hill Steam Rally


May Bank Holiday weekend and at last NAH and I found time to spend a whole day together yesterday. We didn't find any traditional maypole or morris dancing, but we did visit a new event for us: Abbey Hill Steam Rally and Country Fair at Yeovil Showground. It's the kind of show we love and all the usual elements were there: classic tractors, cars and motorcycles; displays of vast collections of tools, salt & pepper pots, oil cans and tractor seats - though sadly we failed to find E.M Boobyer's collection of Women's Land Army memorabilia; models galore and of course lots of steam traction engines and wagons.

We also found many new quirky things to giggle over: unusual signage abounded and I was particularly taken with the pictured one I saw on a Sentinel steam wagon. NAH found a collection of vintage valve radios to keep him happy; there were twin boys with matching dogs like black floor mops; an excess of foam in the stationary engine displays; enough steam to create a permanent fog in the cabs of some of the drivers; plus the biggest assortment of wild and luxuriant facial hair I've ever seen. The day was rounded off by a display of exotic insects in the show ring. As this was the size of 3 football pitches and they were hand sized, we had to rely on the commentary to tell us all about the giant spider and stick insect being paraded around. Classic stuff.

Comments

  1. Flighty5 May 2009 at 18:28

    Going to a rally like that really does show English eccenticity and quirkiness at its best! xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anna5 May 2009 at 21:05

    What a great sign :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. VP6 May 2009 at 15:47

    Flighty - that's exactly what I think!

    Anna - it is and I think I might have to adopt it. It's a bit like my dad founding Birmingham Organic Gardeners!

    ReplyDelete

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