Full Steam Ahead! Why Steam Rallies Are A Great Day Out

Have you ever considered a steam rally for a bit of weekend entertainment?  Steam you say, is that with eucalyptus?  No!  It’s actually a collective of people in a field exhibiting historic agricultural machinery that run on steam.  Stick with me here…

So, I am the daughter of a man who loves these things, Dave Harold of Odiham to be precise.  You’ll know this from the words painted on the side of his 1963 Austin Loadstar (*It’s a truck, a green one from the olden days).  Now, I love my Dad, he’s pretty much my favourite human, but genetically, I’m not as pre-disposed to the wonder of vehicular mechanics, old or new.  BUT this past weekend, rather than just sending my kids off with him and diving off for that aforementioned spa steam, I went along.

AND… stop press.  It ROCKED… and fizzled… and hissed and blew some steam.

Here are just some of the things that we got up to at the Welland Steam Rally on a sunny weekend in July:

1. We watched a live demonstration of how land would be prepared to make roads in days gone by (I confess, I’m not sure how it’s even done now but it was fascinating).
2. We saw an old tank crush 2 whole cars (on purpose)
3. We had rides on a beautiful old big wheel with views of the Malvern hills just as the sun was going down
4. We watched a magic show where my 6 year old was selected to help and is thus now forever in love with magic
5. We watched a Punch & Judy show – and I confess, I have no idea what that was all about
6. We ate delicious, chunky, vinegar drenched chips at 10pm at night
7. We saw a Queen tribute band (that was definitely a kind of magic)
8. We saw fireworks
9. We went for a ride on a hayrick pulled by a steam engine
10. We ate candy floss
11. I bought some homemade Avocado moisturiser for just £6.50!
12. We watched some show girls dancing with feathers
13. My daughter got a cool leather satchel from a craft tent
14. We sampled and bought chutney from the Farmer’s market tent

That’s just from memory and only covers about 6 hours of entertainment time. It truly was pretty good fun for all concerned.  The great thing for me about this was the authenticity.  This wasn’t a posh festival conjured up by an ex Britpop star and a TV chef with stalls from ex hedge fund managers who’d set up organic granola businesses.  There were no pink Hunter wellies here.  These rallies are organised by people who truly understand and celebrate the historical wonder of this equipment.

There are some great stories too, history behind the history.  Being a bit of a regular at these things (he goes to one pretty much every weekend throughout the summer), my Dad knows everyone and everything.  There’s the guy on the big wheel who inherited it from his Dad – who one day famously just had enough, walked away and said “it’s yours.”  There’s the value of the enormous, beautiful shiny engines that are puffing away (it’ll make your hair curl – seriously, it’s steam, it’ll make your hair curl).

So, if you fancy getting out of the smoke and into the steam this August, my Dad recommends The Great Dorset Steam Fair in Blandford (www.gdsf.co.uk), on from 22 – 26^th August.  Apparently it’s exactly like the one we visited, but on an even grander scale.

• For all dates and information on steam rallies nationally, visit www.steamheritage.co.uk