Sewards of Petersfield - Rally Review

This rally is put on by the Eastleigh Vintage Machinery Preservation Society over the weekend of the 14/15^th of May and is held between Colden Common and Eastleigh, it is well established having been in this location for a number of years. This is an 'old fashioned' or 'traditional' event with a well supported steam section. The programme boasted 33 machines but in fact there were 27 full sized engines present offering a good cross section of types of steam powered vehicles. Other sections such as cars, commercials, tractors etc were well represented.

The weather was kind to the organisers, the only 'blip' being a wet start to Saturday, Sunday however was dry and sunny, these pleasant conditions being reflected by the number of visitors.

It was unfortunate that the sawbench area was obscured by a double row of fire engines as this prevented visitors from fully appreciating this popular demonstration, perhaps the field could have been laid out slightly better.

On balance the rally was a very enjoyable event that we would recommend to anyone, exhibitor or visitor, plenty of room for the engines to chuff about, a good variety of arena events and a friendly atmosphere, see you there next year.

Throughout the Steam and Vintage Rally season, we'll be visiting rallies with and without our Traction Engine, Victoria, and we intend to give a personal review of what we found, good, interesting, exciting, etc.