Last Sunday was a perfect sunny summer afternoon in the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) just 30 miles north west of London.
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/03/rupert-brooke-and-chilterns.html
AONB is one step down from a National Park designation and provides tight control on development and farming. This was an aspect we certainly appreciated as we headed down the lovely Missbourne Valley towards Prestwood, a hamlet in the hills about a mile from Great Missenden
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/roald-dahl-museum-and-story-centre.html
on the road towards High Wycombe. First order of business was to work up an appetite by visiting the Steam Fair at Prestwood followed by a superb barbie prepared by a Suid Afrikan Braiemeister washed down with oodles of Pimms No. 1. Dankie as they say in Cape Dutch!
The Prestwood Steam Fair is something of a Chiltern institution held at the beginning of July in the scenic environs of The Hangings at Prestwood and organised by the Chiltern Traction Engine Club. It is very much a major event for the aficionados with Steam Engines arriving all week beforehand with their “Living Vans” in tow. Don’t show yourself up in the presence of steamers by calling them “trailers”!
There is considerable variety at the fair with the attractions including around 40 Traction Engines, and Vintage vehicles including Cars, Motor Cycles, Lorries, Tractors and Stationary Engines. There is a Model and Craft tents, a Children's fun fair, a Children’s Farm and a large market with stalls selling clothes, toys and games, bric-a-brac, tools, auto jumble, etc. A working area with Steam Traction Engines demonstrates how they would have been used in days gone by when they would have earned their keep on the farms, estates and highways and byways of Britain. On site catering includes a licensed bar, burgers and fish and chips, a hog roast, doughnuts and jacket potatoes so there is a real fair athmosphere with many camping on site for the weekend in tents, caravans and trailer homes so Prestwood becomes a village and marketplace for the preservation community. Indeed their enthusiasm is catching for the whole event is avery real and dynamic exposition of an important part of Britain’s heritage in engineering and industrial design, a heritage which created our modern world.
A Living van
Morris delivery van
From time immemorial, the fastest way to travel on land was on horseback - but the advent of steam power for the mining industry in the later 18th century led to its adaptation to the movement of goods and people across the world. Britain was at the forefront of this technology and the first successful self-moving machines were introduced on the mineral railroads for iron and coal mining 200 years ago. The rapid development of steam technology led to the age of railway mania in the 19th century when many thousands of miles of railways were built in the UK alone.
The same technology was applied to road transport and the first self-moving traction engine was built around 1860. Rapid development saw many traction engine builders spring up, though most were in the east of England, with others in the industrial heartland of Yorkshire. To improve the roads, steam rollers were made. From the 1850s to the 1930s, steam was applied not only to roads but to agriculture as well, many engines - self-moving or not - being used to mechanise farming.
Meanwhile, steam power's hold on industry was growing, with huge beam engines used to pump out deep mines, or to raise fresh water or foul. Massive horizontal engines drove cotton mills, mainly in Lancashire and Yorkshire, while steamships plied the oceans of the world; all this made Britain 'great'. Around 100 years ago, the steam engine was adapted for leisure purposes and was a boon to travelling fairgrounds, both hauling and driving their rides.
Foden Steam Waggon
Foden Estate Tractor
After the First World War, a glut of surplus petrol-engined Lorries became available and these gradually took over road haulage from the 1920s, especially as steam was legislated against. Later, the diesel engine took over from petrol, and road haulage from rail as the country's rail network was slashed. This has left a legacy of superbly restored 'classic' Lorries which we can enjoy today while we wonder at the progress made in only a few short decades.
BMW Iseta Bubble Car
Blackstone Stationary Engine
We are fortunate that much of Britain's rich transport, agricultural and industrial heritage is preserved in working order, and many enthusiasts give freely of their time to keep it so. Every weekend in the summer numerous shows and open days are held around the country where many thousands of visitors can enjoy these superb relics of a bygone age and marvel at the engineering which once put the 'great' into Great Britain in the days when Birmingham claimed to be the workshop of the world, Wolverhampton the toolbox of the world and a quarter of the world’s ships were built on the River Clyde alone.
Steam Carousel
"Local Bus"
The Prestwood Steam Fair is a joyous family celebration of this heritage. Indeed even the wonderful carousel and organ is steam powered as are many of the side attractions. I did wonder about the Stationary Engines display which consisted of engines pumping water nowhere, milking machines powered by them with no cows attached and sheep shearing clippers with no scared sheep in sight. Behind these stationary engines were the proud owners and their families in tents inhaling the benzene fumes from their little motors! More satisfying were the displays of vintage cars including a BMW bubble car and nearly every model by Morris Garages in Oxford or MG as the marque was better known.
But for me the highlight was the exhibit of these fine beasts of the steam world actually earning their keep with a belt on their huge fly wheels harnessed to fearsome band saws, crushers and threshers which allowed you to appreciate their power and utility. Finally to the ring for the Grand Finale – the parade of these wonderful engines in all their finery like a herd of hissing mechanical Leviathans. Seeing them in all their finery and power I could understand why the steam enthusiast’s magazine is titled “Old Glory.”
The Grand Line Up
As I walked away from the Fair on this glorious summer’s afternoon in the Chiltern Hills the thought occurred that there are worse ways to work up an appetite for a barbie. There is something about steam which people identify with – I think this is because it is the last advanced technology whose inner workings are visible and easily understood by everybody. if you fancy a unique and fascinating event on the first weekend of July next year in the lovely Chilterns you could do worse than make a beeline for the Prestwood Steam Fair.
The Chiltern Steam Rally is held at Prestwood, on the A4128 between Great Missenden and High Wycombe
The Hangings, Honor End Lane, Prestwood,
Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, HP16 9HQ
Thanks for the photographs to a talented architect, designer and photographer who let me use his shots.
www.tri-linear.org
This was not the intention but when I took out my camera I had forgotten to insert a power pack. Modern Technology!
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