EATES Road Run Sudbury, Suffolk 11/12 August

[Mr B]

The East Anglian Traction Engine Society is holding a road run this year around the Sudbury, Suffolk area on 11th & 12th August. We will be based at Simon Webb’s yard in Acton near Sudbury in Suffolk. On the Saturday we will steam a total of around 18 miles, going from the yard, through the old market town of Sudbury, to Ashley Cooper’s museum in Gestingthorpe. Here there is a wealth of information and artefacts ranging from Roman villas, right through the ages to agricultural bygones and local history. We will stop here before lunch to have a look around.

From the museum we will trundle a little further up the road into the village itself, passing the church, to the Pheasant pub in Gestingthorpe, where we will take lunch.

After lunch we will steam back into Sudbury, heading towards the delightful village of Long Melford. From Long Melford we steam the last mile or so back to the yard. After bedding the engines down, there is the choice of many local restaurants and pubs within a couple of miles of the yard. Many of us are hoping to travel into Sudbury for dinner, and to enjoy the evening together.

On Sunday, participants have the choice of trundling locally, or steaming to Hawker Restoration Ltd in Milden, a round trip of around 12 miles. Here they restore vintage aircraft, and have kindly allowed us to have a look around. This will be a rare opportunity to see some iconic aircraft in the process of restoration. Lunch will be taken on our return to the yard at the pub in either Little Waldingfield or Acton.

We are hoping that this should be a really fun road run, and we encourage our members, and others to come out to take part and witness this event. For those of you who want to enter an engine, please contact Kevin Baldwin at the earliest opportunity to secure a place on the run. Also, those of you who wish to help make this run a first-class event, feel free to contact Kevin. We look forward to hearing from you.

All are welcome to come along be you spectator or exhibitor. If anyone wants to make a late entry please contact me by PM and I'll pass your details onto the organiser.

A map of the route can be found here - http://www.eates.org/images/Route_map2.pdf