The 2009 Belvoir Castle Steam Festival & Family Show, as it’s now billed, was another excellent show unfortunately spoiled by the constant showers. The event featured the Ford & Fordson Expo 5, which had almost 200 tractor entries in its own right, as well as the now customary Road Roller Association, Road Rescue Recovery Association and REVS ERF gatherings.

Excellent collections of both commercial & military vehicles have long been worthy of note at Belvoir, and it was nice to see a selection of large living vans accompanying the former, including Balmforth & Sanderson, Ibbotson, Brayshaw 1959 “pan-loaf” & 1936 traditional-style. Their smaller cousins, the classic caravans and campers were also numerous with examples of Car Cruiser, Berkeley, Angela, Thomson, Bluebird, Stirling, Carlight, Pearman Briggs Safari, Cheltenham, Bailey, Portafold, Viking and the ubiquitous Sprite. Only a few of those names survive today.

The car section had moved to an area separating the autojumble stalls from the stationary engines which seemed to give them more room for the numbers on display, however, there appeared fewer than expected no doubt due to the weather forecast. Several “I survived Belvoir Castle 2006” signs were displayed to remind us of past horrors. Because of the showers, I never got around to the motorbikes so no pictures or info on those, I’m afraid.

Stationary engines and steam exhibits appeared little changed from 2008, but there were one or two classic machines on display in the RRRA section, including a brightly coloured Scammell Crusader in the livery of ASW Recovery. There were several large American vehicles on show as well including White, Mack, Peterbilt and Kenworth. Heavy haulage units were mainly Scammell with the odd European Volvo and Scania. Home-grown stalwarts included ERF, Foden, Atkinson, AEC, Leyland, Albion, Austin-Morris-BMC, Thornycroft, Commer, Bedford, Douglas, Unipower, Tilling-Stevens, Seddon and Ford.

The military “camp” do really make an effort here with several period camps and positions set-up. In period costume, and with vehicles arranged to suit, this area is very much worth searching out. Prime movers here were a mixture of Bedfords, Albion, Leyland and Austin K-series with the occasional Mack, Dodge or Reo, together with Daimler Ferret scout cars, a selection of jeeps and similar equipment.

The Ford & Fordson Expo 5 gathering brought together almost 200 entries, including such derivatives as Roadless, Muir Hill, County, Northrop and Doe, as well as the Ford-Fergusons. As has been the case in the past, all the major types were grouped together, for examples, Dexta, Major, Pre-Force, Triple-D, 4-wheel drives, etc. A few of the older tractors, such as the Fordson F, some model displays and related spanners were on show in the FFA marquee, and they also had their own parade ring.

The balance of the tractors were lined up by make as usual, with emphasis and Nuffield and Leyland. The horticultural section, as at Lincoln, was representative with just one of a number of different marques, and there were several different club displays from the Rutland branch of NVTEC, the Lincolnshire David Brown Club and Vale of Belvoir Machinery Club. The latter had a very good working area with threshing, root cutting and milling all being demonstrated as much as possible in-between the showers.

Around the site, the Ilkeston Crushers put on their usual excellent display but saw very few visitors due to being out of the way right on the edge near to the end of the bygones lines. The miniature steamers were also in this area but again we ran out of time. A dog agility arena, Landrover display, excellent model and craft tents, vintage fairground and organs all make this an excellent show to visit.