Ashtead Village Day – 13th June By Steve Rowland

Pictures courtesy of Luke Huckle

0000000000 First was Ashtead Village Day being just on the edge of the M25. This show is very well supported and had many stalls and an abundance of refreshment vans, a funfair and a live band. It has a great following of classic vehicles which start a parade from the City of London Freemans School which is a couple of miles away and make their way to the show ground.

In my closing comments of the last newsletter I mentioned I had carried out a total refurbishment of my larger trailer that now matches my Land Rover.

Ashtead was the first show I arrived at with the Land Rover and what I am calling the matching trailer. It went well; now with electric winch it made life easier, so I have joined you all that have had one for so long. It enables me to get the Bamford SV1 and Bamford pump out again, which I can’t remember the last time as this set up needs quite a bit of water, it was well loaded.

When I arrived, I was greeted by Luke who puts in so much work for the show and has done for many years with his late Grandad Tom. Luke was with one of the other organisers when I arrived, the organiser said ‘Does he want to be in the car parade’. This was indeed a very nice gesture, but I didn’t. Instead, I parked up and the suggestion was I opened the bonnet for the crowds to pass by. Crowds, there was so many people, packed, with the fine weather continuing. We had a good line up of engines, enough to put on a good display.

At lunchtime Jenny fired up the BBQ and we all tucked into burgers and sausages.  The event raises funds for Ashtead Rotary and this year £30,000 was raised and over 5000 people attending. This is a future event for me now and I would encourage more members to reach out to Luke for next year’s show.