Chiltern Vintage Charity Road Run report

Peter love reports on the Ferguson and Massey Ferguson machinery spotted on this year’s Chiltern Vintage Charity Road Run.

The annual Chiltern Vintage Tractor Charity run was blessed with stunning weather this year on Sunday 19 May, organised by Gary Anderson on behalf of the Ferguson Club. Well known Old Glory magazine photographer Simon Colbeck very kindly attended the event and took some superb shots for us.

After what had seemed like weeks of rain the sun finally came out in the middle of May, perfectly timed for this year’s Fawley Hill Vintage Transport Festival, the start and finish point of the Ferguson Club’s Chiltern Vintage Tractor Charity run this year.

Now in its 18th year, this is the first time that the charity run has been held at the same time as the transport festival.

Lady Judy McAlpine hosted the transport festival on behalf of the National Transport Trust at her Fawley Hill estate home. Lady McAlpine is president of the Trust and works tirelessly to promote its aims of supporting the preservation and restoration of all forms of Britain’s rich transport heritage on road, rail, wings and water. Lady McAlpine took on the role after the sad passing of her husband, the late Sir William McAlpine in 2018.

The Fawley estate was a stunning location for the festival and tractor run and is also the home of the Fawley Hill Light Railway, which operates for about a mile around the grounds of the estate. Built to accommodate Sir William’s Hudswell Clarke steam locomotive, the railway is renowned for having the steepest adhesion worked incline on any railway in the UK, at 1 in 13.

With the three-day Transport Festival opening to the public at 10.00am it was very important to get all the tractors out of the site before the surrounding area became congested with traffic. With a pre-run blessing by vicar of Hambleden Valley Churches, the Reverend Andy Storch, everyone was ready for the off for a prompt start at 09.40am.

The Chiltern Charity Run is very much a team effort, organised by Gary Anderson, ably assisted by Ian Ritching from the Ferguson Club. The event is supported by a superb team of volunteers who provide catering for all the participants and marshal the route – very important on the narrow lanes of the Chilterns. As in previous years this year’s event was run in support of the Thames Valley Air Ambulance, an extremely worthy cause, which receives no government funding and, as such, is wholly dependent on charitable donations.

The Chiltern Charity Run is essentially a series of off-road runs, interconnected by relatively short sections of road running in the stunning countryside of the Chiltern Hills. For this reason, the organisers are particularly grateful to the numerous landowners who allow the procession of tractors over their land.

This year’s theme was the 80th anniversary celebrations of the D-Day Normandy invasion, with many tractors sporting D-Day invasion stripes and other insignia and drivers in suitable uniform; 75 participating tractors took part, with over 40 of them being from the Massey Ferguson family. Many with trailers headed out from Fawley to the pretty village of Stoner from where the first off road section started. This was a beautiful run up to and through Balham’s Wood. The views from the top of the first hill with Red Kites circling over the Chilterns were truly breath taking.

After passing through the villages of Turville Heath and Ibstone, more off-road sections, including brake testing up and downhill sections, led to the old village of Fingest, passing the 12th century St. Bartholomew’s Church, with its distinctive twin gabled Norman tower.

Then it was back off road for more hill climbing in the woods before a triumphant return to a packed Transport Festival at Fawley, where the returning tractors did a lap of honour around the assembled traction engines in the arena – quite a sight and a fitting end to a most excellent morning.

This feature comes from the latest issue of Classic Massey & Ferguson Enthusiast, and you can get a money-saving subscription to this magazine simply by clicking HERE