The Great Dorset Steam Fair

Every year I see the signs for the "Great Dorset Steam Fair" but we had never been. As this will probably be our last summer holiday in Dorset I decided we should go because my parents are moving to Norfolk before the end of this year.

It was a boiling hot day and the traffic was horrendous. The kids were not impressed by the massive traffic jam and my dad objected heavily to being stuck in the car on such a glorious day since we hadn't had much good weather so far.

I enjoyed the actual historical aspect of the show but the food was really expensive and one half of the fair is just a giant car boot sale and cheap jacks market. 

The high light of the trip was definitely seeing some of the functioning  farming machinery from the past.

The display included corn grinding and stone milling machines driven by shaft gearing plus water pumps, generating sets, horizontal and vertical tree sawing, a barn thresher, cleaning and winnowing. There was also an old thresher driven by a 1958 Ferguson with a barn baler from 1934. The complete cycle from sheaf of corn (cut on site) to organic flour for bread was demonstrated by staff wearing traditional clothing. You were then able to buy a big bag of the wholemeal flour for £1 which I thought was an absolute bargain as it weighed in at 1.5kg.

The craft tent was a bit naff, not really proper crafts... much of it just cheap novelty stuff from China.

Another highlight were the shire and heavy horses which were absolutely beautiful.

 The old fairground organs were also pretty impressive.

Overall I would have had a much better time if I had not taken my father because he is such a tight fisted git - he moaned about every penny spent and wouldn't even draw any money out because they charged £3 so I ended up paying for everything which still didn't stop him disapproving of every purchase. He is so mean he even wanted to buy a kilo bag of rabbit food for his muesli because it was only £1 !!!