The Stotfold Shuffle

A little album of scenes that presented themselves at Stotfold Working Steam Weekend last Saturday. And, as when playing an album or playlist of music, it's sometimes fun to press shuffle and see what unexpected juxtapositions and themes are thrown up. So if you want to see some cute cushions next to an old, greasy engine then you've come to the right place!

"It's all done by smoke and steam!"

"Traction"

"Cyclamen For Sale"

"The Horseman"

"Thrashing Machine Detail"

"The Guardians Of Our Steam Heritage"

"...And A New Generation"

"Steam Into Clouds"

"Precision Engineering"

"Just Cruising"

"Fordson Major Diesel"

"A Wide Selection Of Attractive Cushions"

"Concentration"

(and in black and white)

"I know it's called a Working Steam Weekend,

but all work and no tea....."

Would you like to spend a couple of minutes or so wandering around the tractors and threshing machines with Les?

I promise that we will escape from the world of steam and return to the English countryside very soon. It just so happens that there are several steam gatherings at this time of year - I think it might be deliberately arranged this way so that the heavy equipment doesn't have to be moved huge distances between venues.

Take care.

Full Steam Ahead

 Further explorations at Stotfold Working Steam Weekend:

Sawing By Steam

There were a couple of different set-ups for sawing huge logs, powered by steam engines. A large part of the art seemed to be in lining everything up satisfactorily. Once this was done the saw cut through the largest timber with ease.

Tractor Ploughing

The field at the end of the showground gets ploughed by any number of different tractors over the course of the weekend. It has to proceed at a leisurely pace to ensure the job's not finished too quickly! You never know what kind of machines you'll see in operation.

A little red Fergie just like the one we used as a general purpose runabout when I worked on a farm. 

But this was definitely a bit before my time! This is an International Harvester 8-16 tractor from just after the First World War - so over 100 years old and still going strong. Many of these old tractors are better preserved than their drivers.....

A Few Portraits

These shows attract some real characters.....

Steam Thrashing

Thrashing (or threshing) machines were introduced into this area in the early years of the nineteenth century and caused the normally peaceful agricultural labourers to riot and smash up the machines which they feared would steal their jobs.

Many were harshly sentenced for their protest, though several men were later pardoned - probably because their labour was still needed on the land. In time a large proportion of the agricultural labour force moved away and found work in the cities and it's also been argued that increasing mechanisation led to cheaper food for the working classes. I've also heard it suggested that the First World War could never have been fought if such a large part of the workforce was still needed to gather in the harvest.

There was no shortage of labour on the thrashing machine today!

More Steam

With a steam engine you can't just jump on and turn the key. The furnace has to heat up and the boiler build up a head of steam before you're going anywhere. An excellent time then for junior enthusiasts to climb aboard and play at engine drivers.

But don't wander too far away or you might get more steam than you need!

A great opportunity for the passing photographer!

In the afternoon I spotted this machine returning to the show towing a tanker of water to keep the thirsty engines running.

This man is stoking the firebox to keep a steam pump running. But this is not just any old pump; it's a horse-drawn steam-powered fire engine. If you had a house fire in Newbury you'd be glad to see it arriving on the scene. A case of fighting fire with fire!

Last But Not Least

So many people seemed to miss Monty and Logie ploughing their lonely furrow in the far corner of the showground.

Apparently the darker horse is a Shire while his companion is a Clydesdale

There's a whole lot more that I haven't shown you: a large marquee selling all kinds of craft items; a fairground with a helter-skelter and roundabouts; a bar; several food vendors; a chance to be photographed holding an owl; a fairground organ belting out cheery tunes; a rock-crushing machine that we never did manage to see working; stalls devoted to selling tools, potted plants and all kinds of junk; various charities and environmental groups: the man selling straw hats......

After all that you might fancy a cup of tea.

Take care.

Thank You, Mr Tickner

We're about to embark on a visit to Fullers Mill Garden, a little gem hidden away in rural Suffolk. When Bernard Tickner moved into the cottage in 1958, it came with a few acres of overgrown and derelict land which he set about transforming into the garden we see today.

A series of fulling mills had occupied this site since at least the mid-fifteenth century. Fulling was the process used for cleaning and thickening woollen cloth and the people who did the work were known variously as Fullers, Tuckers or Walkers - so if one of those is your surname then that's what your ancestors got up to. The woollen industry was central to the economy of the area during the Middle Ages.

The River Lark, which passes through the garden, was once navigable up as far as Bury St Edmunds, linking it with the great fenland rivers. Stone for the Abbey, for example, would have passed through the lock-gates here. By 1900 however the waterway had fallen into disuse.

By the time that Bernard and his wife Bess acquired the land it was in a sorry state. The river had eroded through into the pond and had become a swampy area littered with fallen trees.

There is still a sense here that rampant nature is about to take control of the garden once more, as you wind your way along narrow paths between the trees and flower beds, discovering new unexplored areas and unexpected glimpses into the world beyond.

There are many kinds of lily in the garden, one of Mr Tickner's enthusiasms. It always amused him when people complimented him of the colour-scheme of his plantings; he was colour-blind!

On a trip to Crete, Bess Tickner discovered a local form of Iris, Iris cretensis. And, in the Pyrenees, Bernard found a yellow form of Fritillaria pyrenaica, which was subsequently named after him.

In 2013 the assets of the Fullers Mill Trust were transferred to Perennial, a charity supporting those who work in horticulture, and it is they who manage the site today.

Bernard Tickner passed away, aged 93, in 2017, shortly after being awarded the MBE. But not merely for his contribution to horticulture. He had other strings to his bow.

He was also a naturalist and conservationist and it so happened that, while he was developing his garden, the Lark Valley was being exploited for its sand and gravels. Huge pits were being dug to extract the material, with little or no regard to the environmental damage that was being caused.

They soon found they had a formidable adversary in the gardener from Fullers Mill, as he fought many of their proposed schemes in the courts and prevented the destruction of valuable habitats and historic rivers. When the gravel companies left the site he proposed turning it into a nature reserve, Lackford Lakes, where I have spent many a happy hour peering through my binoculars.

The reserve did not only benefit from his energy and determination, he also made considerable monetary donations towards such things as the splendid visitor centre.

But that's not all I have to thank Bernard Tickner for. To understand that we have to travel back a few decades to when I was working on a farm, stacking straw bales every harvest time.

It was hot and dusty work and the only thing that was on my mind during the last hour's labour, as the sun was declining in the western sky, was the thought of walking down to the village pub in the cool of the evening and sinking a couple of pints of Abbot Ale before closing time.

You see, Mr Tickner's day-job was Head Brewer for Greene King Breweries in Bury St Edmunds and Abbot Ale was his creation.

I can't give you a pint of Abbot Ale via the internet, so I'll leave you with a scene from Bernard Tickner's other great creation, Lackford Lakes Nature Reserve.

Take care