Rural PasTimes

Euston Flower Festival

Once again, St Genevieve's Church at Euston was filled with flowers and works of art.

Every year the flower arrangements depict a theme, there is a wealth of local talent among our flower arrangers and last years theme - "Aspects of the 11^th Dukes life", was interesting, this years theme "Decades of the Queen's reign" will - I have no doubt - be equally impressive.

If you wish to take part in this prestigious event and display your arrangement at next years Flower festival - please contact Sally on 01359 268923

Wishing you a happy New Year and hope you enjoyed the festive season! It is that time of year when we are planning our next event and I am writing to all the exhibitors that attended last year to invite you to this year’s event on Sunday 10th June 2012.

Anne has done a sterling job over the last 7 years and now hands the reins to me for organising this part of the event....
Last year was a resounding success with over £32,000 being raised for our charities in a time of austerity and that’s in no small part down to your support, so thank you.

Last years winners:

In the Classic car category - Keith McLean with a 1955 2200cc Ford Zephyr Six

and in the:

Vintage cars - Bart Keaney with a 1913 3400cc King 1931

well done both of you.

The weather was not so kind at the end of the day last year but that aside most everyone I have spoken to had a really good time. I do hope you can come along to this year’s event and make it an even more enjoyable day.
The entry form attached has been changed but still requires the same information to be provided; we have increased the entrance fee slightly to £8 for vehicle entered to include the diver, one adult and a Car Brass that will be given out on the afternoon of the show. Additional adults will be charged at £4 each and children £2. (Children are young people aged between 5 and 12 years old.) A programme can be purchased on the day of the show. Programme printing deadline is 1st May and to ensure you are parked in clubs or with friends, as the peg layout gets done at this time for the programme, your entry should arrive by this date. I can accept entries up to 1st June 2011 but these will not be included in the programme.
I will be posting your windscreen passes and peg numbers at the end of May to get to you in good time for the show; please don’t forget the A5 stamped addressed envelope with your entry form: this will need a large envelop stamp please.
If you are in a Vintage or Classic car club please bring this event to the notice of the organisers.
Don’t forget you can also pre book your lunch in the Euston Hall kitchen by telephoning Gill Farrow on 01842 763660. As ever there are limited numbers and the lunches are always sold out well before the day priced at £10 each to include a glass of wine!
Thank you again for your support last year and I look forward to meeting you again this year,
See kevins welcome letter in full

Classic cars are one of the real attractions at the Euston Rural Pastimes Event. The sparkle, sheer number and variety of these wonderful machines is exceptional.
Classic means over 25 years old, over 90 of these cars were pre 1960. The Cars ranged from a 1906 Rover 6 Horse Power car to a 1986 Mini Piccadilly with many other makes including Armstrong Siddley, Rolls Royce, Triumph, Lotus, Morris, Wolseley, Scimitar. Cars are parked at their allocated ‘Peg numbers’ so they can be identified in the programme. Around midday there is a Classic Car parade in the Grafton Ring, which is near to the main park gates for Euston Hall.
We welcome a large variety of Classic Car Clubs. These include, Brandon Classic Cars, Bungay Veteran & Vintage Cars, Cortina Owners, East Anglian Practical Classics, Landrover Series I & II, MG Owners, Naylor Cars, North Norfolk Minors, North Norfolk Classic Vehicles, Stag Owners, Suffolk Vehicle Enthusiasts, West Norfolk Minors, Wymondham Old Timers, ‘A’ Series Minis and many others.

We have a large rural Crafts section covering sometimes old and overlooked crafts. Everything from the wood and metal related to beekeeping and farriery.

There are several demonstrations throughout the day of these crafts, you will find us near the Suffolk ring.

More information can be obtained from the Steward, Tim Fogden on 01359 268923 or by emailing us at:
craft@eustonruralpastimes.org.uk

Stationary Engines

Following the judging of the competition for the Stationary engine categories – the winners are as follows:-
Over 1.5 HP -

Richard Sadd -Ruckland St Mary – with a Rushton Hornsby Series 1929

Under 1.5 HP -

Ray Hall - With a Petter M

Many years ago machines like this dominated British agriculture. In fact not only agriculture but many areas of industry. From ploughing the fields to harvesting the crops, road haulage, timber extraction....

See these impressive monsters in action, some working the same machines they did 80 to 100 years ago.
Demonstrations include a working mobile sawmill, threshing machine....

The sight, sound and smell of steam never fails to impress. Steam power was as vital a part of the revolution in agriculture as it was in the industrial revolution. As our event is an event of many parts, aiming to suit all tastes, we deliberately have a small but carefully picked selection of mainly agricultural engines on show.

All the full sized engines on display have had a full working life in the countryside, mostly during the early part of the last century, running threshing machines for the mobile threshing contractors, powering a rack-saw for cutting timber or on haulage duties.

Many of the various manufacturers are represented, some built in East Anglia and we are always particularly pleased to see a Burrell or two, manufactured just up the road in Thetford.

They have all been lovingly restored from various states of neglect, are meticulously maintained and enthusiastically rallied by their owners and carers, most doing the “circuit” of steam rallies during the summer months.

We are also pleased to host a variety of scale models steam engines. Some are carefully manufactured from scratch replicas of full size counterparts, while others are built from kits, but all are fully functioning and safety tested steam engines and a credit to their builders and owners.