Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show
Posted by Chris Graham on 21st March 2023
Mike Milestone reports from the recent Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show, at which Ruston & Hornsby was the featured engine make.
A little Nelson Bros engine, owned by David Mitchell, from Heckington.
The Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show has been a staple of the autumn/winter events calendar since the early 2000s. Traditionally held over the armistice weekend, 2022 saw the event move a week earlier to the 5th & 6th of November, due to a clash with other events.
Our 1916 Keighley imperial Pitt gas engine was displayed on the Tractor Fest at Newby Hall rally stand, to help promote the 2023 show.
Held on the Newark Showground and organised by the Newark & Nottingham Agricultural Society, this event is seen by many enthusiasts as the last big show of the calendar year, with approximately 1,000 exhibits entered annually.
Darren Lees, from Cartworth Moor, was exhibiting this 1930 Lister CS and generating set display.
As the event is held in November, the weather has the ability to be cold and unpleasant, but this doesn’t cause too many issues at Newark. Thankfully, the showground features an abundance of large exhibition halls, which means that there is space indoors for the vast majority of exhibits. Several large marquees are also erected on the site to keep exhibits out of the worst of the weather, and these even feature heating to make for pleasant conditions at this cold time of the year. As is to be expected, there was also space allocated outside for those wishing to run their engines over the weekend.
Tomlinson’s Ruston & Hornsby 3HRO was the biggest engine at the show, and it won the trophy for Best Unrestored Engine.
This year saw the organisers introduce a special feature make into the engine section, in an attempt to increase interest and exhibitor numbers in the section. The chosen make was Ruston & Hornsby, and it proved a very popular choice with in excess of 30 Ruston & Hornsby engines being entered. Among these were some unusual examples, such as Andrew Fox’s Ruston 1HR and a couple of carrot-hopper PTs. As part of the feature, I’d taken my 1939 2PS; a model of which only 450 were ever produced. Other examples on display included several PTs, a 6PS, PBs, PRs and APs. There were also a couple of IPs and a 3HRO on show to round-off an impressive display of interesting Rustons.
A 1958 Ruston BCW compressor set, which was displayed on the National Vintage Tractor & Engine Club’s stand in one of the exhibition halls.
One of the benefits of having plenty of indoor space, is that Newark attracts many clubs and organisations to take display stands to showcase their organisations. I was exhibiting as part of the East Yorkshire group NVTEC and also on the Tractor Fest @ Newby Hall stand. Both stands had generous pitches in the largest exhibition hall, and displayed a mix of tractors and engines. Other clubs that had similar displays included the East Anglia NVTEC, Lincs NVTEC, Carrington Steam & Vintage Rally and Stradsett Park Rally. It was great to see these stands promoting our hobby and all seemed very popular with exhibitors and the public alike.
This 1937 Petter M (Benford hopper) was one of three engines displayed by Paul Walton, from Richmond, N. Yorkshire.
Next year’s Newark show has been set for 4th and 5th of November, and will undoubtedly build on the success of this event to be even bigger and better.
An unusual little Anzani Pilot two-stroke marine engine, owned by Alan Barker from Whitby.
This report come from the latest issue of Stationary Engine, and you can get a money-saving subscription to this magazine simply by clicking HERE
