The show is led by farmer Martin Desmond, with P J Ryan as his vice-chairman and Martin’s wife Mary as the secretary and the bedrock of this event for so many years. As one stands on the stage one looks down across at the parade ring where all the engines essentially live during the event, while further on the left are the many farm animals and further down are the catering units; across to the right are the crafts tent, stationary engines, commercial vehicles, folk stage and the fun fair.
On the right is the trade stand village and further up are the many classic cars which have increased three-fold since this event started. The same could be said about the tractor display which as always was superb and included veteran, vintage and classic machines, whereas the car display had a majority of later Japanese classics which is good to see and for some is just as interesting to see as are the older machines we love.
Behind the parade ring is the working area and this featured the Lordan’s stone crusher set-up worked by their 1936 Foster 7hp No. 14636 . Next door was the rack saw bench driven by Fred and Steve Jenkinson’s ex Peter Page of Gun Hill, East Sussex 1905 Allchin 8hp No. 1311 . It sounded strong on the governor after a major rebuild in Shaftesbury, Dorset. This was not the only Allchin here as it was good to see 1907 6hp
