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The
West of England Steam Rally.
"If
you had all paid up, you could have had dinner with me!"
Our first visit to this Rally was two
years ago when it rained for most of the weekend, the site became a
quagmire, and there was mud everywhere. For those of you who don’t
know Cornwall their mud has special adhesive qualities making it
almost impossible to remove from cars, especially tyres. So we said we
would never go again.
(It rained so much last year, Dennis,
that it was cancelled! - webmaster )
Earlier this year Brian Murrish
suggested we might like to go again this year as the weather could not
be that bad again and it would be a really good show. We were still
reluctant but said if Brian could find us a B&B within 10 minutes
drive of the Show site, (the previous year we had been 30 miles away)
and suggest places to visit we would go.
We decided to go for a week and left
home on the Friday before the Show, which was not one of our better
ideas. We always use the A38 as far as Exeter which is normally quiet,
but not this time with the towns jammed with traffic and the open
roads full of tractors and trailers. We planned to pick up the old A30
outside Exeter as an alternative to the modern dual-carriageway but
all direction signs disappeared in the centre of town and we ended up
on the dual-carriageway anyway.
We finally arrived at the B&B at
Wheal Rose about 6pm and checked in, then went outside to park the car
for the evening, turned on the ignition and pressed the starter
button. Nothing happened! Just then Brian ‘phoned to see if
everything was ok and he then came over to see if he could help. We
checked all the fuses, electrical
connections etc., but to no avail. Next Brian checked over the starter
motor will I kept operating the starter button, nothing happened until
Brian pressed the end of the solenoid and hey presto the motor turned.
So we were able to continue starting the car. On returning home we
found that the very fine wire connecting the starter button terminal
inside the solenoid was broken, but we were able solder in a short
connecting wire to bridge the gap.
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Click to
enlarge
Line-up on
the Club's stand |
Saturday morning
dawned to some Cornish "liquid sunshine" but it did
not last long and we set off for the Rally field were we were
met by Brian and Chris Bowden. Chris and Linda had travelled
up on Friday night and their car was already on the Club stand
with the post-war 8 belonging to John Gessey and we were later
joined by Peter Hallam with his 1930 Ensign. Dorothy Murrish
is also a big Austin 7 fan and her car was on their stand next
to ours. For Saturday evening Brian had arranged a meal for us
all in his local pub were we were joined by Tony and Ann
Skilton also of the Austin 7 club. |
| Sunday was a much
better day with the field having dried out overnight and
driving around much easier. The rally is organised by the
local Steam Engine Society and there must have been in excess
of 30 engines and steam propelled vehicles on site. While
sitting in my deckchair drinking tea and eating biscuits I saw
a steam engine pass with a registration number I recognised
and with the name "BERKSWELL" on the side of the
boiler. Berkswell is a village in Warwickshire near where I
grew up and this engine had been on a local farm and the last
time I saw it was in the early 1940’s.
Went off to find the owner
and tell him what I knew of the engine’s early history and
in return he offered me a ride on the engine round the show
ring allowing me to both steer and operate the regulator. The
highlight of my day! |
Click
to enlarge
"Try
to overtake me and I'll crush you!"
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Click to
enlarge
Chris gets
a little shut-eye before going back to work! |
Chris and Linda
had to return home on Sunday evening; well someone has to keep
the country going! So on Monday morning we drove round to
Brian and Dorothy’s for coffee prior to our tour of
Cornwall. Were we were joined by Tony and Ann in their Austin
7 van. We set off in glorious sunshine with the Flying 12 the
meat in an Austin 7 sandwich for our first stop at Carn Brea
monument. It was a stiff climb to the top but the view was
well worth it being able to see both Cornish coasts. We then
made our way through typical Cornish lanes to the South coast
at Marazion and then along the coast road to Penzance with
magnificent views of St Michael’s Mount. |
We then turned back in land for lunch
at country pub followed by a drive across to Land’s End airport and
then up the North coast to St.Ives where we had a excellent cream tea
in the old station master’s house. We then set off for Hayle where
we said goodbye to Tony and Ann and Brian and Dorothy guided us back
to our B&B.
Tuesday we visited the Eden Project
which we thoroughly enjoyed although there is a lot of walking
involved and the tropical biome "ain’t arf ot" Wednesday
was spent visiting more local attractions the narrow gauge Lappa
Valley Railway being particularly interesting.
Thursday morning we set off for home
following the same route as before but with much less traffic having
covered 785 miles with only the starter motor problem.
Once again many thanks to Brian and
Dorothy for organising our visit so well and to Chris & Linda and
Tony & Ann for their company.
Report by Dennis and
Sheila Brown
Photos by Brian
Murrish
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hours to produce, tell me
if you are enjoying them.
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