South Molton Vintage Rally (6th - 7th September, 2014)

This is one of a series of pages which I have uploaded to illustrate facets of steam rallies we have attended in the UK. Such events occur all over the country in the summer months, they are easily found by using your favourite search engine and may have anything between a handful of steam engines and hundreds (as at the Great Dorset Steam Fair which could probably be fairly described as having an excess of riches). Click here for the overall index for 2014.

South Molton was, by some way, the smallest rally we have attended but none the less enjoyable for that. It was originally scheduled for May 31st / June 1st but was postponed as the ground was unfit. A shame as we were in the area to visit the Tavistock event the next day. It's a lovely part of the country and the journey over from the M5 near Taunton on the B3227 with no traffic was a complete throw back. There were just 5 engines (presumably the other two originally booked had other commitments). Four I had not seen previously and it strikes me that rallies like this will often be attended by local engines that do not stray far. The highlight for me was the 'reed threshing' which as will be explained below was a rather misleading title.

Steam Roller

	Maker	Number	Registration	Notes
	Burrell	3956/1923	HT 8219	Boconnoc Fair 2016 Picture

General Engines

	Maker	Number	Registration	Notes
	Aveling and Porter	8624/1915	KT 6137	Boconnoc Fair 2016 Picture  Boconnoc Fair 2019 Picture
	Burrell	3381/1912	TA 451	Boconnoc Fair 2016 Picture  Boconnoc Fair 2019 Picture
	Burrell	3903/1921	TA 1871	"Excelsior"   Torbay Rally 2014 Picture  Torbay Rally 2015 Picture  Cornish Fair 2015 Picture  Welland Rally 2016 Picture  Welland Rally 2018 Picture  Great Dorset Steam Fair 2018 Picture  Abbey Hill Rally 2019 Picture
	Ruston Proctor	52266/1918	CJ 4178	"Corn Maiden"

Steam at Work

The Ruston Proctor was set up with what looked like a thresher but was in actual fact far more interesting. The main part was indeed a Marshall thresher, but on top was mounted a 'comber' by Murch Bros of Umberleigh of 1888. From the announcement of reed threshing, I had expected something different, but in fact the crop was a type of long stalk wheat used to produce the thatch so beloved of traditional cottages. Hence, the bunched stalks had to be laid flat in the right direction for the heads to be removed. The trash was removed and baled and the wheat reed or ready to use 'thatch' was then tied up in bundles. Meanwhile the chaff was sorted and the grain husked, it was much darker than usual. I am just a beginner but I would guess that such machines will be rare these days.

I have uploaded a short video clip to show what was happening - http://youtu.be/OGdZDZ0gFJI.

Many thanks to Jon Becklake for filming facilities.