Weeting Steam Engine Rally and Country Show (14th - 16th July, 2023)
This is one of a series of pages I have uploaded to illustrate facets of the steam rallies we have attended in the UK. Click here for the 2023 introduction and overall index.
When I first visited steam rallies regularly in 2013, to my eyes there was a clear hierarchy based primarily on the number of engines attending, but also taking into account other factors particularly the size and scope of the 'working area' (if any). For what it is worth, my top three would have been GDSF, Old Warden and Lincoln with their 'challengers' Welland, Shrewsbury and Weeting (the last one based on hearsay, we first visited in 2017). Based on 2022/3, I would say that the challengers are now the top three although the emerging rally at Turvey may provide some competition after a 4 year hiatus in the Bedford area, but it will need a stronger working area than I saw in 2022.
Weeting qualifies as a 'large' rally and in 2018 it had been its 50th and we had enjoyed a glorious full day in the sunshine. The 2022 rally got squeezed out of our calendar as we were heavily overdue a return to Masham since we hadn't been there since 2016. This year, like many UK families, we are on an enforced economy drive, so, once again, I am extremely grateful to collaborator Paul Gilbey for all the photographs here. He reports that it was again an excellent rally, much appreciated by a large attendance. I think I need to save my pennies for 2024.
Paul's pictures concentrate on the engines, if you want a fuller view of the working areas I uploaded a number of pictures back in 2018 and covered steam ploughing in 2017.
Choose the page you are interested in and within that, click on a thumbnail for a larger image. Then click again to return to the page.
