7th Rolleston Charity Transport Festival

The cars were split between the Croft, Burnside, Rolleston Service Station and the Scout HQ. There was also a range of lorries and a whole host of camper vans. For the children there was vintage fairground rides, face painting, rides on a model railway and a childrens’ entertainer with Punch and Judy, a fairground organ and Steam Roller from Klondyke on Brookside.

The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Spitfire flew over at 2.40pm.

This year’s beneficiaries are; St Mary’s Church, The Air Ambulance, St Giles Hospice and The Almshouses Restoration Fund.

There were tea and cakes at The Old Grammar School and a barbecue and hot food at Rolleston Club; plus, as a special treat, crepes being made and sold from a vintage Citroen.

In the marquee: Pete's trains and a large exhibition of Bayko building sets. More exhibits in the club with a display from Magic Attic, toy trains and Meccano.

In addition to the Transport festival there were bus rides around the village linking up with the Garage Sale.

Rolleston CO-OP complemented the Festival with its own Charity Fun Day on the frontage. A fire engine, stocks, tombola and stalls. Proceed in aid of newlife, a foundation for disabled children.

The dull cold start didn't deter the early morning shoppers and transport enthusiasts as these sample of photos show.

Transport Festival Facebook Page

7th Annual Charity Transport Festival
(This article is taken from Rollestonian - Autumn 2015 issue)

The weather was kind to us again for the Transport Festival. The day started at just after 7-00 am for the organisers and at a quarter to eight the first exhibitor’s car rolled up. This set the tone for the day. The Croft was full but not overcrowded. Similarly Burnside. The garage site filled up quite early with vehicles and some garage sales. We had an idea that the show would be busy and had obtained permission to put some overflow vehicles on the Scout HQ car park. This turned into a busy little community.

We had some really nice vehicles on display. One highlight was the US Army GM lorry in the Club car park that was set up as a ENSA stage with Gemma Bower and Jim entertaining us with 1940’s songs.

The number of visitors matched the number of exhibitors and it was a very busy day. The food providers were kept busy all day with queues at the Club barbecue and the chip van.

Overall the feedback that we received was that it was the best Festival to date.

The only down side was the number of cars parked throughout the village, especially on Church Road and Station Road, making life very awkward for the buses. This is a problem that is growing and needs to be addressed.

This year we decided to actually pay for two star raffle prizes; a flight in a Tiger Moth and a driving experience on a steamroller from Klondyke on the A515. We had no feedback on the Tiger Moth flight but the lady who won the steamroller ride was thrilled and had a great time, coming back covered in soot smut, but beaming.

The day raised £10,000 for local charities and this was divided up between St Mary’s Church, the Almshouse Restoration Fund, St Giles Hospice and the Midlands Air Ambulance.

We aim to give everyone who helped on the day a commemorative mug to thank them but we ran out of mugs. We now have more and anyone who helped on the day but has not had one should contact John Morris on 814181 or any member of the organising committee.

A big thank you to all who helped on the day and all who came along to the show and bought souvenir programmes.

John Morris

The following article (minus the pictures) has been lifted from “My Classic” and demonstrates an outsider’s view of the quality of the Transport Festival. For excellent pictures of many of the cars on display visit the website at the end.

Last updated: 30 December 2015