This was our first full weekend visit to the annual Cavalcade of Historical Transport and Country Show organised by the Rushden Historical Transport Society on their new site just off the A6 Bedford road, just south of Rushden, Northamptonshire. Old friendships were renewed and new ones made at this friendly and welcoming club event, and we shall definitely be back in years to come.

My last weekend visit was some years ago at the old Lancaster Farm site where we had either been towed on at the start or towed off at the finish, after heavy rains and some over-enthusiastic psuedo-military tank drivers had messed the ground up good and proper over successive years. However, this new site, now in its third year, appears much better drained and not so heavy going and gave no problems after overnight rain and showers on Monday.

The arena entertainment was the common mix of vehicle parades, tractor games and performing animals, with the Duston Pacesetters Dog Display Team, Midland Bernese Carters and a falconry display. The latter obviously had a varying success rate with his birds, as he was spotted walking out of the main gate with his direction-finding equipment on Monday afternoon.

Pitched as we were right next to the main gate, the amount of coming and going throughout the day by exhibitors, visitors and others was quite amazing. This is to be expected during the morning, as there is a different road run each day, and many vehicles leave the site to participate. Saturday's run started at noon from Rushden, Sunday's at 10.30am from Bedford and Monday's at the similar time from Riverside Park, St Neot's. However, the number of people who tried to blag their way in by virtue of "visiting" some friend was quite phenomenal. The volunteers who manned that gate from 7am to 9pm each day were great and put up with a lot of abuse.

The line-ups of exhibits were a bit of a mixture, with cars being the high point and tractors the low. The former were plentiful and varied with many pre-war and post-war vintage cars, and some interesting and unusual classics amongst the ranks. The motorcycles also were plentiful with both veteran and vintage examples, as well as quite a lot of modern classics. The tractors, however, were a bit disappointing with many apparent off-farm preserved examples in the line-up, although, to be fair, there were also some very nice restored examples.

The military, commercials and PSVs are always a high point of Rushden events and although the days of the churning tanks appear to be over, there were some excellent displays of military vehicle encampments and several dioramas set up in a large marquee. There were several Scammells and other makes complete with living vans but the general commercials were not quite so good as I remembered. The bus contingent came and went each day with only the society's own vehicles remaining constant, the rest of the line-up changing daily. Stagecoach provided a Bristol Lodekka as a shuttle bus to and from Rushden & Higham Ferrers on Sunday and Monday.

The steam line-up in both full size and scale form was also well supported and there were various working displays including threshing using a Tullos machine, wood-sawing, corn-milling and chaff-cutting using a horse-drawn gear. Fengate Forge were also in attendance with their vast array of engine-driven machinery. Trade stands were plentiful as was the catering and although I didn't venture into the fenced and guarded compound that was the real ale bar, I understand the beer was up to the standard of the late Lancaster Arms. The various sessions of entertainment available included Winston the Singing Farmer, Doctor Busker, Old Speckled Men, Mustang Blue and Bootleg Zoo, so I would expect something for most people there!

All in all a welcome return to a show that I used to look forward to each year as the annual season opener, may those happy years return now that a decent site has been found and the problems of the new Millennium shows are now all in the past.