After months and months of glorious sunshine soaked rallies, September came around to remind us that we do in-fact live in England and that rain is very much part of the deal. The unfortune show to first get a reminder of this (That I’ve been to) was the much loved Longstock rally in Hampshire. But if you think the rain and mud would dampen the enthusiasm of the exhibitors and visitors at the show, then you are very much mistaken!
Firstly I’d like to give a shout-out to the organisers of the show for making sure any problems were sorted as quickly as they appeared. Namely getting hundreds of exhibiter and visitor vehicles on and off site, with the assistance of plenty of tractors and their owners onsite, and cancelling the third day of the rally to make sure everybody could be helped off-site was the right call. Longstock being hosted on a working farm, and with the rain leading up to the show, mud was always going to be a problem.
Those who did brave the weather still had a superb choice of things to see and do! Tractor fans especially were spoilt for choice, everything from brand new Case’s supplied by T H White, to 100 year old Caterpillars out in the working field. The working field in itself is worth seeing, covering an area almost as large as the main show field. It really is fantastic to watch these machines doing what they were designed for. An extra treat that the show should be proud of was having the Pickfords heavy haulage trailer that any regular of the Great Dorset Steam Fair will be familiar with. Plenty of effort was put into getting it to the show and seeing it driven around the working field made for a great spectacle.
The stationary engine section also had a wonderful turn out of exhibitors, with almost every space taken! I counted around 50 running engines on the Saturday, Lined up in prime position right by the main entry gate which gained plenty of interest from the public.
Sticking with my normal method of listing engines by nationality, I’m going to start with the British built machines. Immediately next to the entrance was the 1930 Lister A 3HP Genset owned by Neil Cuthbert, The Tangye M Type owned by Pete Gear, the heavy fly wheeled Crossley PE 1070 owned by Nick Maloy and the Tangye Pump set owned by Dennis Barnes. Other British engines included a pair of Stuart Turner P55 Gensets, A Norman T300, Mighty Ruston Hornsby’s 6AP and 1XHR, An almost new looking Petter-Light set, and A good mixture of Lister D types (Including a ‘War Finish’ and 80011!).
Onto American engines and the Amanco manufacture had a strong showing of mostly Hired Mans, but a wonderful mix of spec. Joining them was a lone Johnny Boy and a 4 Mule Team, the latter being owned by a friend of mine and first time rallier Andy Headings. Other American iron included a very original looking Sandwich (Not the eating kind), A small HP Pilter, a pair of Witte engines both in open and closed crank forms. Nelson Brothers built engines also had a strong showing, with a Little and regular Jumbo, Sattley and Monarch all making appearances.
European engines only had two reps in the form of an naked Conord CL and a Lorenz but both were on top form.
If you were there and I didn’t mention your engine, please check the Youtube video that goes along with this article as that has nearly every engine that exhibited as well as some ploughing and the heavy haulage from the show. Apologises for the wind noise in said video. I do highly recommend Longstock in 2026, even as a visitor. Low ticket prices with a lot to see will make it a worth while trip, regardless of the weather.
As always, detailed videos of some of the engines mentioned will be uploaded to my channels over the next weeks. (Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram and Youtube!)
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Country: GB
