The story behind the ‘Rempstone Weekend’
Tribute to the annual show - cancelled this year over Covid 19
THIS coming weekend should have been what is so commonly known county-wide as ‘Rempstone weekend’ with the annual Steam and Country Show taking pride of place over most other local events, with thousands of people turning the clock back to see master machines from times past.
But, like hundreds of activities countrywide, it is on the list of ‘cancelled’ ones because of the coronavirus pandemic the whole of the UK has been enduring since March.
In was in 1956 that Rempstone first hit the local events diary and it has been there ever since, becoming more and more popular as the years roll on and as the show becomes year by year bigger and better and recognised as the area’s biggest crowd puller in July – a claim easily underlined many times and none the stronger than last year.
Sport might have taken over on British TV on the second day of the 2019 show with important national events taking place in the both the UK and France, with millions of people attending them or watching on TV, it didn’t stop many hundreds and hundreds of people attending what is now termed the annual Great Rempstone Steam and County Show and held at Turn Post Farm, Wymeswold, organised to raise much needed funds for local and other charities.
The event moved venues regularly in the early years.
From 1956 to 1962 the rally was held on Rempstone farm. When grandfather Beeby died the farming practices changed, which then did not lend to having the field available.
The event then moved to Lings farm, belonging to Les Burton, next to Stanford Hall, and sometimes across the road to John Jenks’ farm, depending on the crop rotation. On one memorable occasion the fields finished being cut on the Friday afternoon prior to the start of the show!
The location moved to Turn Post Farm in 1981 and has remained there ever since.
One of the most memorable events at the show took place in 1994 when Paul and Angie Appleton held their wedding blessing in the show ring followed by their reception celebration in a Belgian Picture Palace brought to the show for the purpose.
For two years we were blessed by having the only portable pub in Britain – ‘The Black Bull’ – a solid structure which rocked to the sounds of local bands in the evenings, a tradition which continues today.
The show has continued to grow in size and stature being ‘the place to be’ for exhibitors, the site extends to more than 85 acres with 30 acres of exhibits including 50 full size steam engines, some who attended that first show.
The show began in 1956 as a fund-raiser for good causes and the organisers are proud that the tradition has continued seamlessly ever since with more than £18,000 donated annually to local and national good causes in recent years, profits being divided between four or five charities each year.
The cancellation this year is not the first in the history of the show that started all those year ago. Twice atrocious weather meant it being called off and once when foot and mouth disease was affecting the area.
Sunday as the second day has traditionally attracted more people than on the first day and last year was no exception, despite the counter attractions and with hundreds and hundreds of Rempstone supporters seemingly giving up the chance to watch on British television of the World Cup cricket final at Lords involving England - and the eventual winners for the first time ever—and New Zealand, the Wimbledon Men’s marathon five hours Final, the British Grand Prix and the Tour de France.
The fact the
Cricket
World
Cup Final at Lord’s, contested by the runners-up from the previous tournament, New Zealand, and the host nation, England was a worry to show officials but it needn’t have been, because the pull of the rally was sufficient to, let attendance figures hold their own.
The rally itself was started by the late John Beeby of Rempstone and whose son Michael is now Honorary Life President, keeping up his record of never having missed one of the annual events that started in his family’s back garden.
Hot weather on both days last year – despite Sunday starting a little bit iffy – meant that the ice cream vans were kept busy non-stop, often with queues of up to 20 customers waiting to be served. And staff at the drink’s stalls, alcoholic or not, didn’t get much of a rest either.
On both days the events began with the traditional vintage and classic vehicle parade followed by the parade of many of the 70 vintage and classic tractors.
The Rempstone event has the distinction of being the oldest continuous steam rally in the Midlands if not the country, and in a message from chairman Dave Morley for the 60th show he underlined the fact that the rally had always been associated with the Beeby family of Rempstone, with Mike Beeby continuing the tradition, being the club’s Honorary President.
Mr Morley looked back at the early days of the event: “For several years before the rally was officially started small steam events were organized by the Beebys in collaboration with other enthusiasts in order to raise money for local charities and this developed into the first official rally on the 21st and 22nd July 1956.
The first committee consisted of president, John Ford, chairman: H Challand, organising secretary: J.T.Beeby, treasurer: J.Wood and supporting officials T. Bloore, C. Brisco, L. Burton, D. Creasey, R.P.Sharp, R.Neal, T. Glover, F. Coles and T. Brooks.
The event consisted of 27 full size engines entered, with Peter Van Houten’s home built steam van, nine veteran cars dating from 1899 to 1923 and 21 vintage motorcycles dating from 1903 to 1928”.
Several of the families are still represented in the present cohort of volunteers that work to bring the event to the public.
Echo reporter Mike Elliott has worked on the entrance gates for over 30 years and from there is able to record that visitors are not only from the UK Midlands and elsewhere in the country but also from many parts of the world – New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Bulgaria, Holland, the USA and France.. Bulgarians Boby Stefanov, who lives in Keyworth and his friend Hristo Karaivanov from Mansfield have been part of the ‘gate’ team over the last 15 years.
There has been support for the rally over the years by many local firms, including marquee firm Owen Brown, with many Loughborough area firms such as Brookes Machine Tools of Kegworth, TRS Welding Engineers of Melbourne Derbyshire, Loughborough Radiators, Ean Muller Engineering n Welding Supplies of Loughborough, S H Autos of Ratcliffe on the Wreak and, in the early days, Clarkes Boxes of Mountsorrel and Shepshed.l.
Over the years the rally has made scores of donations to worthy charities.
Over the years the Rally had had reason to be thankful for lots of help given to them, including such as Loughborough Beacon Rotary for their assistance with the Caravan Site, Andrew Harby of Turnpost Farm, Vision Express, Riseholm Feeds, Lings Lane Stables, 2425 Nottingham Airport Squadron Air Training Corps, and Leicestershire Constabulary.
MANY of the regular visitors to the show will have by now gained some knowledge about the different types of steam engines that can be seen year on year on the site and the purpose for which they were built.
The owners of them are always so enthusiastic to tell you about their engines … but for those going to the rally for the first time in the future an explanation might be useful.
Traction engines fall mainly into seven different categories: Road locomotive, Tractors, Agricultural engines, Ploughing engines, Road rollers, Wagons, Portable engines.
Types of Steam Engines: The Portable Steam Engine, Traction Engines, The Steam Roller, The Steam Tractor, The Steam Lorry (waggon), The Crane Engine, The Road Locomotive, Ploughing Engines, Showman’s Engines.
Road Locomotive: These were used for heavy and long-distance haulage. They were invariably constructed with compound cylinders and half canopy.
Tractors: Small lightweight versions of the road locomotive, they weigh no more than eight tons and have a high turn of speed and great manoeuvrability. They were used for general transport duties and also in showland. However, in later years many were converted into road rollers.
Agricultural Engines: the ‘jack-of-all-trades’ engines, used primarily for threshing, but also on saw bench work, timber pulling and general haulage duties.
Ploughing Engines: Solely used for working on land for ploughing, cultivating, or dredging, when two engines were used, one at each side of the field or lake. Distinguishable by their size and the large winching drum mounted under the boiler.
Road Rollers: These derived from the agricultural engine, however they have smooth rolls instead of straked wheels for crushing foundations and smoothing tarred surfaces. Wagons: the forerunner to the modern lorry.
There were two distinct types made, the under type with vertical or horizontal boiler and cylinders under the platform (like the Sentinel) and the over-type boiler with cylinders and motion on the top (like the Foden).
Portable Engines: Although not a traction engine, they are widely associated with them, as they were the first moveable steam engines to be built and used extensively for threshing and sawmill work, but also found driving a host of other machinery.