We’d booked the 19th Euston Rural PasTimes show for Sunday before we knew Doddington was back up and running again for 2010, but with the added attraction of heavy horses and top-drawer classic and vintage cars to look at here, we do like the Euston event so decided to do both. Unfortunately, the wife’s electric scooter conked out on the day and had to be recovered from across the showfield back “home” to the engine lines.

We managed to take a trio of engines which are now positioned facing a row of trade stands on a line that everyone walks down as they come in or out of the site, so a prime spot, thank you very much. There were a good selection of engines both large and small, but not so much emphasis on imported engines as seen at Woolpit a week before.

The tractor section appeared to have exceeded anticipated entries as a large number were arranged at the back of the Grafton ring against the house/garden railings. As the ring was in use for public steering on steam engines, I couldn’t quite see how one was supposed to peruse these additional tractors without venturing into the roped-off area, so that’s what I had to do, taking due care of course!

Cars and motorcycles are usually very good here and no difference this year. Give a car owner the sniff of a stately home and they come out in droves, and all tastes were catered for, home the humble Austins through to the Rolls Royce and Bentley marques. Euston usually throws up something a little different and this year a very early Reliant Scimitar MkI caught my eye with its pointed nose and twin headlamps, reminiscent of American cars of the same era.

Another vehicle to catch my eye was the crew-cab International Harvester truck from the mid-late 1960s, decades before the likes of the Nissan Navarro or Mitsubishi Warrior. There was a smattering of light commercials interspersed throughout the cars but the general dealer’s Fordson E83W pick-up with its collection of second-hand goods, scrap, milk-churn, purloined game and fowl was spot-on. Another little section was the model aeroplane display, complimented later by a flypast by a vintage fighter.

There is so much to see here that I can’t cover it all as well as exhibiting with the engines but I did find the time to get up to the heavy horse end of the show where some magnificent carts and drays were on show alongside the horses. The Norwich Union Mail Coach is also close by together with a selection of other horse-drawn items, implement seats, hand tools, bygones etc.

From the vintage viewpoint, I think Euston is now firmly back on track after a wobbly few years where the vintage exhibits were being pushed out at the expense of other country interests, but they all have a place and that is all in the past. I would certainly recommend a visit.