| The Great Dorset Steam Fair 2001 |
| Words cannot really do full justice to this event, you just have to be there! There are 3 things the newcomer should come to realise about the Great Dorset Steam Fair (GDSF) 1. It is in Dorset, just on the west side of the village of Tarrant Hinton about 5 miles east of Blandford Forum on the A354. If you choose to drive from Salisbury, be prepared for a 2 mile/2 hour queue trying to get into the show site. (Use the little minor roads that join the A354 at the Tarrant Hinton cross roads instead) 2. It is Great! (the show fields amount to 500 acres and you really cannot see everything in just one day. I tried to do this and ended up staying for three days! 3. It is a steam fair. This suggests that that there are likely to be a few Showman's Engines, the occasional traction engine, a couple of steam roundabouts and possibly the odd fairground organ. Multiply this by a HUNDRED and you will get some true idea of the magnitude of the event! |
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| Roadbuilding Demonstration During the course of the show, a section of mettalled road was laid using steam rollers, traction engines and steam powered stone crushing machines. Most of the "Navvies" turned out in perion costume, including collarless shirts and red neck-ties. |
| A Sentinel Steam Lumber Waggon brings in another load of timber. |
| Another view of one of the sawmills showing just how much waste sawdust had been produced over the course of 3 days. There were 5 steam saw benches running. In the distance on the left is the caravan and camp site - almost a mile away across the vast 500 acre showground. |
| Steam Powered Sawmill Another demonstration area showing lumber being sawn up into boards and floor joists etc. All powered by steam traction engines. Most of the sawblades were about 6 feet in diameter. This shot just shows the immense scale of the fair, with the fairground rides in the far distance and then a couple of hundred of acres of car park beyond that. The twin towers on the left were cranes used for the "reverse bungee jumping" ride. A capsule was propelled to 200ft by rubber bungees and then allowed to freefall to near ground. After several bounces you were allowed back down to the ground to recover. A very popular ride! |
| A view of the rollercoaster at sunset on Friday 31st August. |
| Some of the constant steaming from the traction engines in the arena area - locally known as the Playpen. Over the course of the 5 days, hundreds of tons of coal were burnt and most of it ended up as black smoke. At times the plume of smoke above the showground was reminiscent of a northern industrial town. |
| A Line Up of Showman's Engines Of the 200 or so traction engines present, about 80 were showmans engines. Here is one side of the line up. Count the funnels! At night this area was lit up like a christmas tree, and rotary searchlights cut through the steam and smoke. The noise from the 100 or so fairground organs was deafening, and some of the larger ones had troups of dancers performing musical numbers such as "My Fair Lady" and other period music hall entertainment. Period dress was common amongst exhibitors, and may immersed themselves in the complete role from the Golden Age of steam for the full week of the show. |
| The sun sets on another Dorset day. |
| Cat In A Hat. This young lady, sat in each of the cars belonging to the Steam Car Club of Great Britain. She wore a different hat in each one. This is a 1908 White, belonging to Dr. Robert Dyke. Thanks to the Steam Car Club for their generous hospitality during my visit |
| A 1900 Mobile and a 1903 Stanley sit side by side - Typical of Lightweight steam cars of 100 years ago, these two are veterans of the London to Brighton Rally. |
| Where there's smoke.......... |
| There's usually traction engines. |
| For Eight days following the Summer Harvest, the fields around Tarrant Hindon in rural Dorset are transformed into an immense showground devoted to the worship of steam technology. The set up process takes a couple of days and the Great Dorset Steam Fair opens it's gates to a total of 250,000 visitors. Many of these choose to stay there and camp or caravan for the 5 public show-days. As well as steam traction engines, fairground organs and amusement rides, there are practical demonstrations of steam ploiughing, steam sawmilling, road building and heavy haulage. In addition to the heavy steam vehicles there were about a dozen steam cars attending, many of these belonging to enthusiasts who are members of the Steam Car Club. As well as steam there were vintage cars and trucks, motorcycles, stationary engines, buses, military vehicles and agricultural themed displays and demonstrations. As ever, was a huge Autojumble, covering about 10 acres, and rummage sales of machinery, engines, tools and household items. If steam was not your bag, there was an extensive equestrian showground, and pony and trap events. |
| Beer and Refreshments As usual the shows main sponsor was The Badger Brewery in nearby Blandford Forum. They provided the half dozen refreshment marquees and arranged the free musical entertainments. Numerous "hot and spicy" cider tents peppered the showground and were well atttended into the small hours of the morning. Catering Catering was provided by a wide range of restraunts and cuisines, from burger and chips, to curries, Chinese and Hog Roasts. A well-stocked "Village Shop" provided the essentials of bread and milk and a wide range of other provisions. Thomas Cook turned up with a mobile Bureau De Change, and cashed cheques and credit cards. Dorset Police had a temporary police station on site, as remember with up to 1000,000 people on site at once, this fair really amounted to a moderate town in size. |
| Musical Entertainment Music marquees were themed into Folk, Rock & Pop, Country and Western, and a band suitable for a Bawdy Badger Brewery Beer Festival! Dr Busker and the Dorset Steam Choir amounted to about 30 people on stage, playing a host of instruments and digging up some of the old lewd and crude rugby songs, punctuated by regular calls for "More Beer" tastefully accompanied by the audience to the tune of Amazing Grace. |
| Market Stalls A large area of the show was devoted to market traders, selling everything from clothes and footware, to tents, groundsheets and rainwear. Other stalls had barbeques, arts and crafts, Alternative Energy companies like Wind And Sun, provided interesting insights into a more sustainable way of life. The showground was really a huge community living precariously on the rolling Dorset Downs, providing interest, entertainment and a living to those who attended it. On the Sunday evening, the camp is broken, and slowly the traction engines trundle away, leaving the stubble fields almost back the way they were just 8 days earlier. |
| As Dusk falls the Show starts to light up. |
| A Personal View of How to get lost in Dorset and End Up Finding Yourself Again |
| August is traditionally the holiday month in England, and boy, I felt I needed a break! Bank Holiday Monday weekend was spent digging up my drive and slaving in the garden, so Tuesday came around just too soon and it was back to work. The week was dragging in the smoked glass, air conditioned office, whilst the sun shone brightly outside, so on Thursday I cashed in some leave and headed West, on an open ended adventure! |
| Mystery Link I spent Saturday afternoon with a very interesting chap, who told me of his wonderful scheme. This is not for the faint hearted or sceptical, but if you want to go to unexplored territory Click Here |
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