The 2008 Ramsey Rural Museum’s annual Plough Day & Country Fair seemed to be the biggest yet, with more exhibits, more stalls and arguably more visitors than previous years’ shows. There were definitely more ploughing tractors at work than for many a year, and everywhere you looked, space was at a premium, which was good for the event but a bit of a headache for some exhibitors.

Unfortunately, we had a late start and on arrival found that there was little or no room for our stationary engines. A plan to extend the engine compound at the back corner was foiled by the need for a huge articulated horsebox to cut the corner and get into its allocated parking space, but eventually we were found space on the front row closest to the entrance gate. However, there was no room for my corn mill on the line, which was a particular disappointment at what is a working event.

However, there were a number of new exhibitors showing on the line including the Young family with their large Ruston Hornsby engines seen at Haddenham, and the Longs with their large cattle-cake breaker and hacksaw, amongst others. It’s not everywhere that you can see a pair of Jaeger engines at one show, and overall, it was a very good display of engines.

There were also a few problems for the tractors, for instance, one local ploughman had done his opening split and first few rounds only to be told he was ploughing up part of the intended car park. He was a trifle embarrassed but rightly pointed out more organisation was needed to cope as there were insufficient marked plots allocated for the number of ploughmen attending on the day.

For the first time I can remember, a one-way system was used on the car-parking field with a constant stream of vehicles existing through the show field between the vintage and classic vehicles. These included a trio of heavy commercials for the first time, those being Gowler’s LAD-cabbed Dodge, Greenwood’s AEC Militant and an AEC Mercury, now in the ownership of Derrick Salter.

It appeared that a side-valve Ford owner’s club were having a gathering with a dozen or so Fords on display ranging from the Model Y, through the 103E to the 100E series of the 1960s. The odd E83W and 300E Thames vans also made an appearance. A nice selection of Morris Minors, an occasional MG, Morris Oxford, Jaguar and Hillman, plus a Saint-style Volvo kept them company, and provided the best display of vehicles seen so far.

The stalls have now been split between the craft in party-tent type marquees either side of the main museum buildings and general trade-stands and charity stalls outside the museum yard on the grass. There were five rows of the latter this year, although a few were bygone displays and collections. Plants, models, home-made cakes, cards and crafts were all interspersed between the general bric-a-brac, and with a choice of catering from burgers and bacon rolls, fish and chips, donuts, or the museum’s tea-rooms, all seemed very busy.

It might have been my imagination but it seemed a little bit of investment had been made in the museum over the last year or so with a few new concrete paths, and better layout and signage of some of the museum’s outdoor machinery. It all seemed less of a jumble and more user-friendly and informative than I remembered from the past. Hopefully the trend will continue, as they should have a bumper payday from this year’s show.

We weren’t late in leaving but Tony Fulcher beat his previous record of only being caught up 2-3 miles short of Wisbech on our way home. One of these years, he’ll get home before we do, not a bad achievement over a distance of 25 miles or so in his Fordson Major tractor.