Sewards of Petersfield

Victoria at Liss Infants School

Back in November 2005 we were asked if we could take Victoria up to our village infants school. Our youngest son Harry, who is a pupil there, was very keen to take HIS traction engine to his school to show all his friends and teachers. They were studying different modes of transport and as the teacher said to me “They’ve all seen cars, bikes, trains, and motorbikes but never a traction engine.”

So one cold February morning we took Victoria back to school, the children’s faces were a delight to see. They were all very excited and well behaved, asking questions that were different from those an adult would ask. The local press were informed and they came along to take pictures, so we made it into the local newspaper.

All in all we had a wonderful day the weather was lovely and the children were great.

Top: Victoria waiting at Liss Station.
2nd: Victoria steaming along Station Road, Liss.
3rd: Entering through the tight gate of the Newman Collard playing fields, Liss.
4th: Spitfire fly past.
Bot: Chinook taking off at the end of the day.

Our village carnival this year was on June 10^th and as always we had been asked to attend with Victoria. This is an event that has been going for years and most of the villagers seem to join in, but this year was a bit different there was the England World Cup game on, so maybe numbers would be down.

Anyway, for us it was up and out earlier to start getting Victoria ready for the days events. Just before midday we were off down to the station car park ready for the procession to set off. There seemed to be a good number of floats and lots of people dressed up and at 1pm we set off for the slow trip around the village. There were a good number of people out on the pavements although we did notice that a lot of people were outside their houses rather than down in the village centre. The last part of the trip is a tight entrance into the local playing fields and getting lorries, tractors and even traction engines through can be tricky. All those who didn't make it through first time had to shunt around to pass through the gates, but unfortunately with Victoria and her wagon you only get one go and you can’t mess it up as there is no going backwards with the wagon on the back. So, with just the one attempt we were through.

The local playing field (Newman Collard) always has an arena with events such as a motorbike display team, the Double LL Club with some of their classic vehicles and lots of local side stalls. The Chinook helicopter was in attendance from RAF Odiham again and this year we also had a fly past from a Spitfire which was wonderful to see. The afternoon was spent chatting to the people and generally having a good afternoon with friends and family. By 4pm the crowds had started to drift away, probably returning home to watch the football match. We waited to watch the Chinook take off and what an experience that was, with us only being about seventy five feet away from the back end of it, we stood in the doorway of the wagon and watch it take off, the kids loved it.

All in all a good day, it’s a good village afternoon, lots of locals out and a real family feel to it.