mardi 30 août 2005

The Great Dorset Steam Fair Rumbling Giants of Pure Nostalgia... There's one type of traffic jam hold-up that actually tempers the ire of most following drivers... one created and headed by a smoking, rumbling, steam traction engine. Those slow, lumbering beasts of the road are to grown men what railway engines are to young boys... mechanical monsters they would love to tinker with, fire up, feel the grinding power beneath the seat of their pants, rotate the highly geared steering wheel and enjoy the twenty or more turns of it to change direction by a couple of feet or so, and after all the hard work, toil and sweat, lovingly polish the bright steel cranks and hot brass pipes with an oily rag... and let off excess pressure with a shrill toot or two on the steam whistle. This week is your chance to experience some of those emotions as the 37th Great Dorset Steam Fair erupts noisily into life. It is recognised as the biggest and best event of its type in the United Kingdom (maybe the world) and is spread across 600 acres at South Down, Tarrant Hinton, a few miles from Blandford Forum. The traffic hold-ups will not be caused by the exhibits for the next five days though (August 31st to September 4th)... but by an estimated 250,000 visitors from home and abroad arriving for this biggest ever event for 2005. The aim of the Great Dorset Steam Fair is to give the public an insight into the English rural way of life from Victorian times - when steam power was in its heyday - to just before the second World War when there were, for example, only 150 combine harvesters working in the UK [see my article Corn Stooks describing an old farming tradition still practised in Wiltshire for organic production - Ed]. The organisers have assembled the largest collection of steam and vintage equipment to be seen anywhere in the world with around 200 working steam engines and 100 fairground organs together with some 2,000 other working exhibits. Many of the glorious machines that defined the "Best of British" for a century or more can be seen together in action. (For American reader's of my weblog this quite different take on the Best of British site is very amusing and explains the anomalies between English English and American English... written by a Brit living in Texas.) Every day there will be working displays demonstrating heavy haulage by vintage commercial vehicles (from 11:00 am); heavy haulage using steam power (from 12:00 midday); a parade of steam tractors and lorries (from 13:00 pm); followed by steam rollers and steam cars (from 16:00 pm)... times are approximate depending on pressure of steam in the boilers! But without doubt all the exhibits will be worth waiting for because they perform as they originally worked all those many years ago. The melodic whirring of the dynamo flywheels, the hiss of steam, the toot-toot of the whistles, the smell of smoke, the gentle and rhythmical rocking backwards and forwards of these stationary giants, as well as the soft throbbing of the solid ground under your feet... that is, unless it rains hard and the terra firma is turned into a slippy quagmire. It happens from time to time and I remember the original location at nearby Stourpaine Bushes back in September 1980 becoming a mud-bath to rival that of the Glastonbury Festival. No matter how hot and dry the weather forecast, those who have been before take Wellington boots, plus a few strong plastic bags and string to wrap around their feet and legs in the event of a storm which can catch thousands ill-prepared... and expecting to see the arrival of Noah's Ark! There's plenty to see and hear apart from clanking steam engines... there are many quieter rural pursuits and country crafts to follow such as hurdle making, thatching and cider-pressing to mention just three. There will be teams of working Shire horses in all their leather and brass finery... posing all the more for cameras when offered a juicy apple to munch. And there will be "auto-jumbles" to rummage through for those seemingly impossible to find bits and pieces holding up a restoration project; plus old manuals and literature of all types for the mechanic or historian, as well as videos and DVDsof previous Great Dorset Steam Fairs for sale. A day out such as this will be thirsty work for all... and there will be many types of edible nourishment and liquid refreshment available. No doubt there will be long queues in places... but there's no chance of the beer running out. The Steam Fair's main sponsor for the 10th year, the family-run Badger Brewery, has been brewing locally since 1777 and will be selling their Badger Best, Tangle Foot, Original, Champion, Blandford Fly, Golden Glory, King & Barnes Old, Sussex and Mild beers and ales by the barrel... although customers should be able to order half-pints too! Every evening a line-up around 50 Showman's engines with their polished barley-twist brass work, spinning flywheels powering dynamos through heavy, sagging drive-belts click-clicking every time their metal-reinforced joints momentarily touch the drive-wheels... some powering the original gaily-painted roundabouts and carousels which, with the swings and hobbyhorse rides, appear more magical as their glowing light bulbs become fully illuminated against the falling dusk. Every day there will be much to see up until around midnight, but even if you can't cover half of the Steam Fair's exhibits it will have been worth seeing. It is one of those spectacles which, like the Le Mans 24-Hour and the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races, should be seen and experienced at least once... they're worth it. 4:41:42 PM    comment []