The 6th Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show was a much more buzzing event than Peterborough a week before, with the total number of entries topping 1100. Even with seven halls of tractors and three large marquees, there was still not enough indoor space to display all the machinery, although some shed space had been taken up by the excellent selection of rare breeds of animals. Featured marques this year were Turner and Marshall.

The former gathered together a total of 16 tractors and one generating set, most probably the greatest number of Turners seen in one place in preservation. The Marshall display ranged from the 1910 Colonial Tractor, 12-20, 15-30, Model M, Field Marshall Series 1, 2, 3 & 3A, MP6, 100, 132, 302, 602, 802 & Britannia crawler, together with some examples of Leylands which were the fore-runners of later Marshall tractors.

The veteran tractors were by and large different to those seen at Peterborough with examples of Big Bull, Eagle, French Titan, Case, Crawley, Rock Island and Avery displayed in the George Stephenson Hall. The balance of the nominated and the better open-class tractor entries were joined by a stationary engine and corn mill, moped and a couple of cars. Excellent displays by the David Brown Club and the Ferguson Club complimented the collection of Turners.

The three marquees were given over respectively to the National Vintage Tractor & Engine Club, Ford & Fordson Association and the Friends of Ferguson Heritage. The NVTEC marquee had representatives from East Anglia, Cheshire, Ouse Valley, Nottinghamshire, North Worcestershire, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, North Midlands, North Yorkshire, Rutland, Lincolnshire, Lancashire and South West Wales Groups.

The outside displays were scattered around the centre of the showground with the Ilkeston Crushers doing their fine exhibition of road making alongside the horticultural display areas. There was a significant military vehicle presence this year, alongside a smaller selection of civilian commercial vehicles, and a large group of Landrovers, plus a couple of steam engines, one turning over a threshing machine.

Most of the remaining tractors were assembled in part of the Stanley Sheldon and Crocker Halls, together with a lot of the trade stands, some of the stationary engines and a few bygone and collectable displays. Half of one of the Crocker Halls was given over to the horticultural machines where the VHGMC had their stand. The Trent Valley Preservation Society had their usual collection of collections in part of the Sheldon building.

Out past the Joe Hallam Pavilion, the rest of the sheds were given over to the rare breed animals and fowl, with horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, donkeys, chickens, geese and rabbits all on display. Right at the far end of the hall, a gaggle of miniature steam had their own little area, far away from the madding crowd.

However, this did bring you closer to the Saturday auction and Sunday’s Old Sodbury Sort-out On Tour, both held in the Newark Ring. There was a reasonable selection of machinery and parts on both days, but not having been to a Sort-out before, folklore meant I’d expected a much bigger event than materialised.

Our circular tour brings us back to the main entrance near the Newark Pavilion which this year was full with both trade and displays, a far cry from our first visit in 2006 when the Ruston stood sad and lonely with no neighbours for 30 feet either side. Indeed, the thank-you letter received this morning states that entries are 75% up since 2006, which reflects our opening statement. However, at the time of writing both Peterborough and Newark have claimed the same weekend of 7-8 November for 2009, which is caused by the former wanting the first full weekend of the month and the latter the weekend closest to Armistice Sunday.