Bill and I have now lived in this lovely Cotswold town for 43 years and there has never been a day when I regretted the move. My husband worked for Lloyds Bank in those days, and he was moved to the branch in nearby Lechlade when our little boy was 11 months old and with only three days’ notice. I will gloss over the attempts to buy another cottage, and the anxiety Bill suffered when driving from Reading every day until we moved to Inglestone (our first house here). Once settled it felt like a Lotto win!
Having lived in a city all our married life, there were some things that one had to get used to, so we spent the first six months looking around locally and going to country fairs and ploughing matches. One of the big events in Fairford was the Annual Steam Fair which was held at the top of the Market Place and attracted thousands of enthusiasts and dozens of fabulous engines.
Although the steam rally is now held some distance from the town, the tradition of the wonderful historical engines and other vehicles filling the marketplace on the Friday evening before the rally is still very much part of Fairford life.
Walking into the square at about 6.30pm on a warm sunny August evening, I was taken back to my childhood at once! The smell of coal and steam was almost overwhelming.
The organ was playing a sort of hurdy gurdy music all from a punch card roll and, of course, steam powered. You can see from some of the images that these enormous traction engines and steam rollers still make people smile!
