The Great Dorset Steam Fair (25th - 29th August 2022)

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 2022 introduction and overall index.

This was probably the last GDSF ever, it did not happen in 2023 and there are no plans for its return. It took me a while to get the bug - to be honest it was too big for its own good, but looking back, I'm glad I did the last three including the 50th in 2018.

The 50th GDSF in 2018 was my first, it impressed me and equally importantly Yuehong too who insisted we return in 2019 and now, after an enforced break, we were back again. As in 2019, we stayed just north of Shaftesbury and commuted, any form of camping having still been vetoed by joint agreement. While it didn't rain, I wouldn't say that the weather was very kind to us, we had sun on Thursday afternoon, Friday morning and Saturday morning which allowed me an excellent set of roster shots but not enough time to do justice to the 'Hill' and working areas including the steam ploughing.

We returned home on Saturday afternoon as we were travelling on to Shrewsbury next day. I understand that by Sunday, the traditional dust of a dry Great Dorset was a serious issue. I thought that the organisation was rather better than it had been for my two previous visits. A simple change to the (Salisbury) car park entry saw cars divided into two streams which were directed to opposite ends which had the effect of keeping everything moving and at least for us eliminated the usual tail back. Having stumbled on a set of 'Made in India' toilets I recorded the state of one of them and informed the information desk that I would publish the picture on my website if things were not sorted within 3 hours and when I went to check later they were spotless. Of course, it should never have happened in the first place and on Saturday I stumbled on a poor unfortunate with a stick whose job it was to poke the accumulated toilet paper down the 'exit'.

Some degree of economic 'chill' was apparent, there were fewer 'traders' present leaving a large gap in the middle of the site. Steam exhibitors were being rationed as far as coal was concerned, those exhibiting ploughing engines in particular apparently needing to exercise restraint. I was told that standard issue was 5 bags a day for tractors with up to 9 bags for road locomotives although this was eased for those who needed extra, such as the engines giving rides to the punters and those performing with heavy haulage on the hill, the latter something I observed but did not record this year as it needs a sunny afternoon for effective photography..

This time my report includes just over 200 engines, which I am told is typical for an average year without a special theme and I was able to photograph every one I recorded  As always seems to be the case the programme included rather more, the reality was that 'late entries' were outnumbered by 'no shows'. Showman's engines were the worst offenders, 61 were listed and I know of not quite 50 in attendance, of course, there may have been more late arrivals like the one that pitched up on Saturday before we left. On a very quick inspection, it seems that 80% of attendees had been at either or both the 2018/9 events, given the special circumstances of the pandemic and the GDSF 50th, maybe that's not too significant.

Did I see them all? No, because I already know of one I missed but realistically probably not many, especially as we did not attend on Sunday or Monday when we were at an excellent Shrewsbury rally. We enjoyed our three days, and our initial reaction is that we will exempt it from our 2023 economy drive even though with just 13 new engines, there was even less novelty than there had been in 2019 which had been rescued by the City of Lincoln exhibition.

In 2018, I was bailed out by a number of fellow enthusiasts but as explained above, these pages will be 'all my own work'. If you attended and spotted an engine which I missed then please use the email address at the bottom of the page to tell me, preferably including a picture to use as well. Whether you were a visitor or stayed away for whatever reason, I hope you enjoy the report as much as I did putting it together, roaming the GDSF site is a great way to keep fit. By the time this is published I will have had a week to recover and I hope that the rain gods will have rescued my parched garden. 

Choose the section you are interested in and within that, click on a thumbnail for a larger image. Then click again to return to the page.

Showman's Engines	Steam Wagons	Steam Rollers	Ploughing Engines
General Purpose	Road Locomotives	Steam Tractors	Portable Engines

Working Steam

On the way to and from GDSF, we stopped in Bath to see one of only two surviving
steam yachts which are part of Carter's Steamfair, which was touring for the very last time

The other set is part of the Saunders Collection and was at GDSF.