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.

Homefare And Produce

In the corner of the Gransden Showground stands the Homefare And Produce Marquee. It's how the show involves the whole community with such diverse categories as Best Jar of Marmalade, Sample of Soft Handicraft, Vase Of Mixed Garden Flowers, Heaviest Vegetable Marrow and even Four Cheese Straws made by competitor aged 6 and under. When we arrived the judging had just finished and everyone was cramming in to see who'd won.

Apart from deciding which was the heaviest marrow (summer squash, zucchini, call it what you will), which anyone can see by glancing at my 11th photo, the judges must have had a difficult task to choose the winners from the 80 or so categories.

Take care.

Horse Power

As promised, a few pictures of the heavy horses at the Haddenham Steam Rally. If the weather had been cooler I'd planned to spend longer watching the horses being paraded in their show ring. Most of the horse show takes place in the corner of the showground, away from the hustle, bustle and noise of the main show, though some which are shown regularly also enter the main ring. 

The horses didn't seem to be enjoying the heat any more than the human visitors, but their owners quickly led them into the shade to cool off with plenty of water.

And just a few photos of other things that caught my eye....

....like the chain-saw sculptor....

....the man with his little street organ....

....and some beer suitable for aging bloggers!

Take care.

Fen Cottage

Just outside the National Trust visitor centre at Wicken Fen there stands an old cottage. It was once part of a small hamlet of dwellings occupied by those who made a living from the sedge fen. It's been renovated by the Trust and made to look as it might have done in the early twentieth century. Duck your head if you're over five feet six tall and come inside.

The first thing you notice is how small the cottage is - then you learn that this was once two separate dwellings! The front garden full of flowers is about right, though there should perhaps be more hollyhocks and roses from what I remember of growing up in a country area in the 1950s (and I don't think things would have been a lot different a few decades beforehand; things tend not to evolve very much when folks have little money).

A fairly typical living area. A large photograph like the one on the wall would be unusual, though wedding photos were often prominently displayed, being the only photo that many people possessed. There's one thing that such re-constructions always overlook though; there were always ashtrays in every home, even if no one in the house smoked they'd be there for visitors.

A good big mangle for washdays, though I didn't notice a washing line in the garden. Everyone needed one, usually with the line being raised up with a roughly made prop. I wasn't very impressed with the back garden; it was far too pretty - no chickens, not enough vegetables being grown, no rhubarb growing under old buckets, no muck-heap for the garden, no swing tied to an overhanging branch for the children, no dog kennel.....

Ah, baths in front of the fire, I remember that well, and very embarrassing it was for little boys when unexpected visitors called! But the bath wouldn't be there unless baths were taking place, it'd be stored out in the garden or in a shed.

A wind-up gramophone. It always surprises me how much people were willing to pay just to have a bit of music in the house. A radio, more often referred to as "a wireless set", powered by an accumulator battery, soon found its way into many homes. We even had a broken-down fiddle stored in the loft which someone must have once scraped away on. Needless to say it was even more broken soon after I got my hands on it! 

I love the way the shelves have been beautified by being covered with artfully cut brown paper, I remember my mother doing the same.

Look at that workbench! That's just so typical of what men constructed in their sheds out of odd bits of re-used timber, not fussy but absolutely solid. The improvised shelves and hooks, the home-made tool-rack, the wood off-cuts carefully stored away for the day that "they might come in handy", they're all so familiar to me. If you look on the chair you'll see some duck-decoys under construction - these would be floated on the water to entice other birds to land nearby so they could be trapped or shot. 

These curious bits of basketry are eel-traps which would be baited and submerged in the stream, the eel would swim in and then find that there were sharp inward-pointing spikes preventing it from turning around and escaping.

A few historical photos had been pinned on the wall showing the old ways of the fen.

A couple of boats in their shed. The top one has an enormous punt-gun mounted on it; the whole boat would be manoeuvred into position and the gun fired into a flock of wildfowl. The lower boat seems to have been used for harvesting reeds.

A home-made barrow and a selection of peat-cutting tools, all essential for those making a living from the fen.

And not forgetting the smallest and most necessary room in the house - or more often "out in the garden" - complete with torn squares of newspaper hanging on the wall.

Just down the lane there's an old Nissen hut. These pre-fabricated huts were used by the military as barracks or for storage and many were recycled after WWII as farm buildings or as workshops. At one time they littered the countryside, though nowadays you don't see so many. 

Also nearby there's a pair of slightly more modern fenland cottages of the type that are still found all over the area. There's not a lot of room in them either!


Take care.