By necessity, we could only attend Skylark for one day and so chose the Sunday, when the public support should be boosted by the “as seen on TV” neighbouring car-boot sale. We weren’t late to arrive but already queues were forming on the road and a steady stream of cars were heading down towards the car-boot area, so it promised to be a good day. With a personal escort from Paul to our pitch, we were soon in position and set up, we were struck by how much the show area had expanded since our last visit in 2007.

Although we’d lost the top lawned area due to an extra residence going up, the show incorporated what used to be the car-boot area, which was re-located across the dyke into what had been a car park. This meant that the car parking was drastically reduced and by late morning appeared to have reached capacity, and with limited access over a single-file bridge, 3 lanes of traffic on the field were soon vying for position with queues along the road as far as the eye could see.

Back into the show area, we found that the stationary engines owners were chuffing, but only just, as it appeared that the orange net fencing destined for the safety barrier had been re-directed to the afore-mentioned dyke edge on H&S grounds, and a paltry single rope had been substituted initially, and subsequently doubled by various individuals to make the minimum barrier to be able to run late on the Saturday afternoon.

The high spot of the rest of the exhibits were most definitely the cars, as there were examples here not seen at other shows in the area this year. Likewise, with the motorcycles which were more of classic design than of age. Commercials and tractors were solid in numbers but by-and-large the same exhibits seen elsewhere this year.

The main ring or arena was vast and could swallow up a huge numbers of people around its perimeter but I guess was made so big because of the variety of ring attractions such as free-fall parachutists from the neighbouring airfield/club and a local go-kart club who wanted to stretch their legs a little in their demo. With various local and national living-history groups camped down one side of the ring, there was a very diverse range of attractions.

After the drama of last year on the engine lines, we had switched to bygones irrespective of whether we could come for one or both days, and following on from the fencing issues that faced the engine men this year, it appeared to have been a wise choice, as there was plenty of room to display. Having practiced my roping and sheeting skills on the trailer this year, we expect to be back for the whole weekend next time.