Over the weekend of 19th & 20th August we attended the event “Story of Steam” at The Weald and Downland Museum.
We had moved Victoria from Amberley over to the event at Singleton the weekend before along with our living van and trailer. We had a good trip over and Victoria did well; it was so hilly, mainly up hill until you get to the last few miles, then there is a big down!
The following weekend on the Friday we transported our little 6″ Foden over to join Victoria and set up our camp for the weekend. By the evening the rain had set in and it was heavy; all night we could hear the heavy showers on and off on the roof of the living van. Saturday morning and thankfully the rain had stopped, but the ground was soft. We had our usual routine of cleaning, polishing and then steaming up, in-between this we would also had our lovely cooked breakfast, cooked by Wendy.
There were quite a few engines attending, even a couple of ploughing engines giving people a demonstration of how they work with their plough, some wood sawing, a threshing set up with engine, thresher and baler, road repairs with a roller and road loco and its trailer, and engines dotted about the museum, all in all a lot for the public to see.
We were sat outside one of their old buildings, the brick drying shed that used to be in the old Nightingales Brickworks in Petersfield, so no doubt Victoria would of been there in her working life; it was nice to see her sitting outside like she once would have done.
It had been too wet for us to move Victoria around the field but with our Foden being much smaller and lighter he got round the field fine, so many of us had a trip round on him. In the evening with the sun now shining we had a lovely BBQ with our friends and crew before we all headed for our beds for the night.
Sunday was busy, lots of public and a great atmosphere, again the ground was still a little soft but we went into the museum to sit outside the brick drying shed for a few hours. Lunchtime back into the field to eat lunch at the living van. The sun was out and the ground had dried a little so Lloyd took Victoria for a chuff around the field, the Foden had also spent most of the day steaming around. But before too long the public had started to disappear and it was time to pack up.
We had a great weekend, despite the weather over Friday night.
