Another Year Gone By…
By Richard Amos
The year kicked off with our Hassocks Gas Up. Always well attended and I suspect the breakfast social may have something to do with that! Interesting to compare the Stuart W2 of Heather and John Moss and the W4 of Tony Khun, two and four stroke variants of basically the same size engine. Next, in May was Staplefield car show with a good line of SEAMS members at the top of the field. As a car show I took the MG and for once enjoyed a day with clean oil free hands! In June came the Ashtead village fete, for many years organised by the late Tom Beams but now taken up by Luke and Jenny Huckle. This was my first attendance taking my Bradford Amanco and a Pullen pump recently acquired from Dick Hayter. The pump needed some work to straighten a badly bent crank and set up a water reservoir but it performed well over the day. Three engines were exhibited by Luke, an Armstrong Whitworth generating set, a Lister driven sludge pump and an Amanco paraffin engine with butter churn. Other exhibits were a Wolseley with Lister pump, the Ruston PB of Peter and Jackie Mitchell and a tank cooled Lister A and mill of Allan Harris. The show was heaving with public; the only downside was facing the band which though good, was a little loud at times… July came and the Broadbridge Heath Village fete organised by the Sampson family was upon us. There was an excellent display of SEAMS club engines including a Witte dragsaw and the sizable Ruston AP, once part of Ian’s collection but now with Phillip, and a lovely Lister D genset I think exhibited by Rowan.
July saw an excellent weekend at the Braemore engine show with my Morton hot tube engine. Organised by Dennis and Chris Barnes, this was first held on this site in 2023 and is a continuation of the now defunct Beaulieu engine shows. It is a must for any serious enthusiast. The theme this year was Ackroyd engines and I think about 20 attended, a never to be repeated display which included number 101, the first production Ackroyd engine brought down by the Anson museum. It was a superb sight to see all the blowlamps going starting engines in the dusk on Saturday night.
Okewood Hill village fete was next with Luke Huckle using his Teles dragsaw to make a mess sawing up logs. Colin had a nice Lister D driven ‘Rexit’ mill, a make I had not seen before and Bill Flint had a model Otto vertical engine that was being a bit temperamental but ran well.
Continuing the tradition set by the Late Tom Beams and Colin, Jenny brought the BBQ so hot dogs and burgers were on the menu for everyone… thanks Jenny for providing the food and being chef for the day… The next day was Cranleigh classic car show. Not to be missed by any ‘petrol head’, again this year, Steve our chairman moved heaven and earth to make sure SEAMS could exhibit. We always have a lot of public interest at the show and think we do make a significant contribution… Again an excellent display from SEAMS. Nathan Collins posted an excellent YouTube video of the engines… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAKIYMx1JQc.
We had our usual position from which we could see the cars coming and going.
The following weekend was the Capel classic car show, no engines but a good run out for my MG. They exceeded their car limit this year and suspect a few non registered entries crept in. A smaller show than Cranleigh but I think better quality cars, certainly more pre-war cars than Cranleigh, and a very good day overall…
The Balls Cross McMillan cancer charity show is one dear to our hearts. Run for many years by Tony and Sylvia, it attracts fine display of stationary engines. This year, Saturday was overcast and windy but Sunday bright and hot… This year a large number of steam engines attended, perhaps due to the demise of the Great Dorset Show. Disappointing were four engines entered but not turning a flywheel all weekend… What we used to call ‘rally ticket entries’. I would have thought for a cancer charity, people would make more effort. I don’t think they would be SEAMS members. Lastly, and coming up in September, is the West Grinstead ploughing match with engines organised by Alan and Lynne Cullen. A proper ploughing match as well as agricultural show, it’s always held in West Sussex and this year close to Horsham. My entry is already in so maybe I will see you there.