We went this morning to the 38th Aldham Old Time Rally & Fair, run by the North East Essex Tractor and Engine Club. The Systems Administrator discovered it was on while searching to see if there were any traction engine rallies coming up locally, and although it wasn't primarily a steam event it sounded fun. There were going to be a lot of agricultural vehicles, and military vehicles, and although they weren't billed as part of the attractions I thought there were bound to be lots of happy and good natured dogs.
Although it's called the Aldham rally because it used to be at Aldham and that's what it's always been called, nowadays it is held just up the road at White Colne. As we parked in a meadow on a flood plain I felt relieved that we'd had a dry few months. I wouldn't have fancied the chances of getting several hundred cars on to that site and out again after a prolonged wet spell, though looking on the bright side there would have been lots of tractors on site to help with the towing.
I invested the princely sum of a pound in a programme, which listed all the right numbers but not necessarily in the right order, as it named a sort of motorised Edwardian bath chair that we were trying to identify as an MG, which it patently wasn't. It was lurking behind a vast array of tractors dating from the earliest days of tractors to the 1970s, all looking very tiny compared to the great John Deeres they use now on the lettuce farm, and completely devoid of safety features like roll bars. A row of traction engines stood steaming, waiting for their parade. Two had their flywheels turning, which made a lovely, soft. rumbling sound, while others only gave away the fact that they were in steam by the mildest hissing. One was being steered backwards and forwards into its slot by a very small boy, helped moderately by his father.
Model steam engines at the scale of three and four inches to the foot trundled randomly about the field, their drivers perched on a tender or wagon behind like Gulliver. As we wandered about we came to a collection of vintage lawn mowers, an unexpectedly large array of military vehicles, and an assembly of stationary engines. Most of them were hooked up to water pumps, endlessly taking water from the bottom of a bucket and pouring it in again at the top. Some were running generators hooked up to light bulbs, but that wasn't so impressive in the bright sunlight. One was driving a saw which seemed to be cutting through a section of railway line, as there was a scattering of metal filings beneath it. Looking at its rate of progress I wasn't sure it was going to cut all the way through before the end of the rally tomorrow afternoon.
Rows of classic cars were lined up in another field, ranging from the properly vintage to a Ford Capri and an Austin Allegro. Hearing a young man telling two small boys how grandad used to have one of those made me think that the crowd probably enjoyed them as much as the large and sedate classic Daimler (available for weddings). And there were stands and stands of what the programme described as Memorabilia, and could have been described as Junk if you weren't a believer. There was junk for sale too, as well as a smattering of crafts, most of which I was very happy to leave where they were. I did buy a useful short handled metal shovel for cleaning the hens' roosting board, a snip at £2.50.
The parades began at eleven, and it's just as well we went in the morning and didn't leave it until after lunch, because most of them were over by one. Some old motorcycles were driven slowly and carefully into the ring, their helmetless owners mostly looking as though they could always fall back on their free bus passes if they had any problems with their bikes. We somehow missed the parade of horticultural machinery because we were looking at the classic cars and the junk, but we saw the commercial vehicles, ranging from an immaculately restored flat bed van to a US fire engine (I'd rather hire that than the Daimler for my wedding) and a modern Scania rig. I don't know what it was doing there, but again it made the old vehicles look tiny.
Then some tractors drove about for slightly longer than the maximum amount of time I would have liked to look at tractors, but they were followed by the military vehicles which were really good, a Sherman tank almost doing handbreak turns round the ring. Then came the traction engines, the small boy still being allowed to do quite a lot of the steering, and after that we came home. There were only more tractors and then the cars to come, and we'd seen lots, eaten our Cornish pasties, done some retail therapy and were starting to get back ache from standing.
I was right about the dogs, there were lots, walking on leads in the crowd and sitting with their owners by their exhibits, and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves tremendously. We saw a small and extremely cute puppy tethered to a caravan by the stationary engines, and then saw it again being taken for a walk, and its little tail was wagging like anything, becoming a complete blur of ecstasy when it was allowed to sniff noses with another dog.
So it's a nice rally. I wouldn't necessarily want to go every year, but it's a good morning out. It's on again tomorrow, if you suddenly get the feeling you need to look at a lot of tractors and dogs and a tank.
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