Smithy

It is the Dorset Flag, which is sung about by Dr Busker each year at The Great Dorset Steam Fair :-D I thought these picture below looked quite good with the flags blowing in the wind.

What an absolutely fantastic few days we had, despite some inclement weather on the Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon I would not have missed this for the world. Got back at 1.30am this morning and was in at work at 9.30am so only just catching up with everything now. Have took over 500 photo's over the five days that we were there and having a quick look through them I think I have only taken the same vehicle a couple of times. From start to finish though this was an excellent trip with something happening everyday that I'm able to look back on with fond memories. There was the excellent British re-enactment camp at Ver-sur-Mer with two 25 pounders on display. While it's not every day you see two DUKW's parked up on the side of the road as was the case in Asnelles where there was a big Belgium vehicle owner’s camp. There was also a nice small group of Dutch re-enactors in Bernieres-sur-Mer set up along the main drag. We didn't really have much time to visit the American sector but the places we did go were very good. There was a good re-enactment camp at St Come du Mont behind the Dead Man's Corner Museum which had a number of nationalities on it. While just a bit further down the road towards Carentan there was an excellent display of over 100 vehicles by mainly French enthusiasts. Saturday afternoon was spent at Arromanches and despite the bad weather we were still there (and why shouldn't we have been) to applaud the Veterans into the arena. I saw a couple of HMVF related items, one being a sticker on a lovely restored AEC Matador which I saw around and about a couple of times. While I also saw a lady wearing a fleece yesterday evening on the ferry home but only saw her once before we headed upstairs. Sunday afternoon was spent in Bayeux for a short period of time where we watched a parade of around 100 vehicles pass through the town centre in torrential rain. But to see two Sherman’s role past just feet in front was well worth getting rained on for!!! Overall a brilliant trip, and one that I will do again one day to visit the numerous museums around Normandy that we were not able to take in this time around. Below are a few pictures of the above mentioned items.

Were you at Ver-sur-Mer Tony? If so it certainly wouldnt have stopped the visitors as it was an excellent display.:yay: We went on Sunday and spent well over and hour and half there before the rain became too much and we moved on.

Just on the ferry looking over the docks. I have counted 23 jeeps, two Bedford QL's and a couple of other bedfords, a dodge weapons carrier, two quads limbers and 25pdrs and a number of other vehicles. We were meant to leave at 8 but I doubt we will be gone by 8.30 at this rate!!

Unfortunatly Stephane the good weather that you have had looks like changing from Friday evening onwards . Oh well as they say the show must go on :yay:

Car is packed and ready to go at 3am tomorrow. Let's hope for some good weather. http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/europe_forecast_7days.asp?locationID=1694 looks ok for most the time. Looks like it's going to rain on Saturday night into Sunday morning though :argh:

:-D Will do. Although will probably be catching a few zzzz's :sleep: after the early start!!!

Me and my dad are off on Thursday morning leaving home about 4am for the early ferry at Portsmouth. Just can't wait now, only two more days at work before the off. :yay: I've just looked at the weather on the BBC site and it says we are going to have rain on Saturday . http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/2150 (click the play button on the Maps section lower down the page)

Nice pictures. Certainly looks as if the field was still waterlogged!!!

And here are some of it in action at Dorset Tony.

Nice restoration and another one saved. Where abouts in Normandy shall you be heading with it?

From first sight this Bedford looked to have something different about it. Can any of you guess what it might be? AntarMike already has a theory on it.

Something a bit different, I noticed these two on the sides of a couple of the modern recovery lorries at Belvoir Castle Steam Show at the weekend. Anybody on here every seen them before ?

Right then, onto the last batch of photos from last weekend. This time it is a few different vehicles of interest that were scattered around the show site and the rest of the military section.

I persume that as it came from Crouch's Recovery that it used to be a recovery vehicle and this was the colour that it used to be in. Still a cracking machine all the same:-D

They were ok as well TBF again from what I saw before we left. There is a hard standing road not far off the field so it's a not to bad a getaway. No probs Andy :tup::. Attached are the next set which include a lovely restored MACK. Will add the last few pictures tomorrow evening.

There certainly was a good selection there Stormin. Surprisingly there wasn't that much trouble and we drove pretty much straight out at 5pm in the Gipsy. Even though the ground was wet it held up pretty well from what I could see. Unlike the old show field where one year went down in history for how bad things got!!! The next few pictures are Jeeps, an AFS Land Rover, a Dodge, another Ferret and a former Civil Defence Austin Gipsy.

As predicted it was sunshine, showers, sunshine and more showers which ultimatly curtailed Sunday afternoon as the showers became really heavy at one point. There was once again a good military presence with a range of different vehicles and also some reenactors. There were also a number of ex-military vehicles around the show site. Below are the first few pictures from the weekend, these ones being armour. I will put some more on tomorrow/later on in the week.

A good rally which suffered with the weather in the first few years, unfortunately the long range forecasts look like it could again :-(. Always a good military turnout and certainly one I look forward to every year now.

Absolutely cracking job Simon. It is certainly a credit to you the way it has ended up looking. Doesn't look like much has changed in the background of the before and after pictures either by the lookout of it apart from a couple of hedges growing!!! :-D

Quite a busy weekend was concluded today as we paid a visit to Sandwell Historic Vehicle Show. There were a few different military vehicles in attendance. Attached are a few pictures of them.

The first time I have attended this rally and I was quite impressed. Set out on a big site there was plenty of different things to see especially in the military section. The only disappointing thing was the lack of commercials for a show of this size, although maybe this was due to attending on the Saturday as shows traditionally have more attendees on a Sunday. Below are the different military vehicles in attendance. BTW can anyone name all the different vehicles making up this first picture???

Another sad story Jules indeed. As Jimh stated in a previous post, sometimes people do have a genuine reason for holding onto them as they are planning to restore them at sometime in the near future. But examples like Jules story prove true about Jimh's other two points that the owner probably has no intention of ever doing anything with it.

What a shame it is to see it just sitting there. It makes you wonder why owners hold onto the vehicles when there are people out there who want to do something with them.

Good on you Mark :-D