Steamers at the Hertfordshire Steam & Country Show

Hundreds attended the Hertfordshire Steam & Country Show in Letchworth Garden City on June 1st-2nd, as Zack Stiling reports.

Some 23 full-size steamers came together over the weekend, along with dozens of tractors, miniature engines, stationary engines, commercial vehicles and historic cars. The Hertfordshire Steam Engine Preservation Society has been organising the rally since the 1960s, and with that in mind it’s appropriate that entry number 1 was the Burbury family’s 1921 Garrett 4CD steam tractor No. 33991 Patricia, which attended the first ever Hertfordshire Show all those years ago. Originally owned by Martley Rural District Council, it was taken over by Worcestershire County Council in 1930 and entered private ownership in 1932.

The oldest engine in attendance was the 1890 Fowler B1 8hp traction engine No. 6376 (the second oldest known Fowler TE in the UK) belonging to George and Jake Maskell, while the hardest-working was surely Michael Watts’s 1902 Marshall compound conversion No. 36258 (ex-Lindsey County Council), which spent the weekend driving a 1935 Powell baler, the type of thing it has done for decades in preservation in Michael’s ownership.

Depending on taste, the most impressive vehicle might have been the ex-Keeley 1914 Fowler DD-class ploughing engine No. 13910 My Delight, or the Saunders Collection’s famous 1921 Burrell showman’s engine, No. 3890 Majestic, which served as a useful landmark for locating the bar.

As a curiosity, it was hard to beat John Forshaw’s 1924 Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies Colonial haulage engine No. 36020, with its distinctive chimney, which was supplied new to Sena Sugar Estates in Mozambique, although the German-made 1926 Zettelmeyer roller No. 302 of the Perrins family was certainly an unusual sight.

It was good to see some newer faces, too. Paul and Ian Vickery’s 1902 Burrell, No. 2507 Pride of Monewden, has not been in the area long. They bought it in 2021, prior to which it had spent 40 years on the Isle of Wight. On a smaller scale, Justin Hayes has been enjoying his extremely rare 1902  Locomobile style 5 Locosurrey since 2022. Before Justin purchased it, the venerable steamer had been out of use since 2010.

Among commercial vehicles, a real highlight was Andy Wilson’s 1954 AEC Mercury, in the handsome London Brick Company livery. Thought to be the oldest surviving Mercury, it entered Andy’s hands towards the end of 2023. Meanwhile, Adrian Watts’s 1959 Morris Minor pick-up looked suitably immaculate following a restoration which was started in 1998 and completed in 2022.

New to a Suffolk farmer, it was taken off the road in 1977 and was in a parlous state when Adrian acquired it. In the line-up of tractors, the highlight by far was a pair of Fordson Super Majors from 1962 and 1964, owned by John King of Royston, with some quite monstrous-looking Automower attachments used for the construction of pylons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This report comes from the latest issue of Old Glory, and you can get a money-saving subscription to this magazine simply by clicking HERE