WESES Cornish Steam Fair

Mike,

I couldn't agree more. This event has no soul.

Stef.

[00000]

The last year they were at Glenn Carter's ,it seemed to me they got it right, & then they moved!

[steaming my way]

Yep, the event has changed a lot since its moved! St Agnes was one of the best rallys in the country, you only had to look at the engines and how far they came from! The site was in a great location, near main roads and as a result very easy to get to! The road run was the best in the country! Loads of people from my area went every year, now none of them go! It was an event that had so much to offer for the enthusiast and the family! Now they seemed set on attracting as many tourist's and family's to come for a day out! In my opinion they have lost the point of the club and why the event was set up! The new event isnt rubbish, its just lost the engines and the character out of what was one of the top four events in the country!

P.s The little Ex Dingles Wallis Advance looks spot on!

[ttp2011]

The number of engines attending has declined quite sharply and the admission prices have increased and for a disabled person like myself there is a lot of walking trying to locate the various engines. On top of that, parking is too rigidly controlled, last year I had to park nearly two hundred yards away from the entrance in a blue badge parking area as the marshall wanted to fill the line of cars before opening the next line. The next line would have allowed me to park about ten to fifteen yards away from the paygates. This year at Torbay, I used the blue badge parking and was able to park 20 feet away from the paygate. Out of the various rallies which I have attended in recent years, Stithians provides the worst parking facilities for blue badge holders and, on top of that, depending upon the traffic, it is a hour and a half to two hour drive from Ivybridge as Stithians is tucked away from the main A30. In future years, I will only attend if there is something special which I want to see and photograph. Next year, I too will probably go to Boconnoc.

[Bosiboz]

I seem to recall this year at least that there was a disabled parking area adjacent to the entrance pay gate

[8_10 Brass Cleaner]

Tom and Robin

The impression I got, and I may well be wrong was that while the St Agnes site had much going for it as you both note, it turned to sh1t at the slightest bit of rain.

It seems as an outsider that one of the factors influencing the move was that after a couple of wet ones the move to Stithians was to a site better suited to poor weather.

And to be fair the reports on here seem to suggest that last statement is at least true, horizontal rain on saturday, no problems on sunday.

[tvoburn]

In defence of the parking and the parking attendants at the site last year a relation of mine went to the event with their disabled son who is confined to a wheel chair. The driver did not display a blue badge but after explaining the situation to the attendant he could not have been more helpful and after a little wait found them a spot to park in spitting distance of the main gate.
I, like a lot of people, have an opinion on the site and have talked about and discussed these with various members of the committee. That said despite the rain I have just had a thoroghly enjoyable weekend at Stithians.
I am sure it takes a huge amount of work to put this event on and credit has to be given to those that give up their time to organise it all, a look at the LSVC website will show what can go wrong when this help is lost.

[Tim Mayhew]

The rain on Saturday was dreadful but having seen the forecast most of the locals either came Friday or Monday. The beer and Saturday night entertainment were excellent as was the company.
The site drained very well and the layout gave most exhibitors a downhill run to a hard road, I was not aware of anyone needing a tow out. Yes it was congested on Sunday; but at least there was movement. The members and the committee did a great job and worked hard. I am sure they will learn from this year and make a few tweaks next year.

We had a great time and were made very welcome by everyone.

Tim

[steaming my way]

Hedd, I think your right about the weather situation! I too went to many a wet St Agnes rally! Obviously when they took the risk to move the rally to another site they had this is mind! You cant please everyone at the end of the day! It just seems to have lost a lot of the character of the show and the focus seems to have changed on who they are trying to appeal to! Given all this credit to the committee there is still a show, its not lost forever! With all the engines in the county and all the enthusiasts down there it would be nice to have a show that the whole county can come together at like they use to at St Agnes!

[Steam Scenes]

WESES has probably suffered more with the rising cost of diesel than any other event. If you look at the list of engines that attended in 2005, their last really big year, a good percentage of those engines were from outside Cornwall, and since 2005 diesel has almost doubled in cost. I know there have been a lot of other factors at play, not least the loss of Alan Thomas.

The old site was a great site when the sun shone, a proper old fashioned steam rally site, but when it rained it was not good, as in 2004.