Great Dorset Steam Fair
The line-up of Showmans engines in 2008
Promoter	Great Dorset Steam Fair Ltd
Organisers	Martin Oliver & Family
In aid of (Beneficiaries)	Preserving Steam & Various Charities
Sponsors (main)	Several
Date held on	1st Wednesday after August Bank Holiday
Duration (days)	5
Venue	Tarrent Hinton
Location	nr Dorchester
County	Dorset
Country	England
NTET Accredited	YES
Attendance numbers (approximate no.)	?00,000 (biggest in UK)
Next Event Date	2010
First Event was held in (year)	1968
Last Event was held in (year)
No. of years held	41 years (2009)
	Originaly at Stourpain Bushes
Events Web Site	www.gdsf.co.uk

The Great Dorset Steam Fair is the biggest annual show featuring steam-powered vehicles and machinery in the UK. The event is held annually at Tarrent Hinton nr Dorchester in Dorset. The event was founded by the late Micheal Oliver MBE, who died in late 2009.

HistoryEdit

The fair was founded by the Late Michael Oliver, MBE and has been held in Dorset, England, every summer since 1968, currently at Tarrant Hinton near Blandford Forum. It now covers 600 acres and runs for five days from the Wednesday after the UK August bank holiday.

It is reputedly the largest outdoor show in the world. The most common exhibits are traction engines, tractors and farm machinery, but also included are preserved railway engines, cars and commercial vehicles, Stationary engines, and shire horses. The show also has a market, autojumble, live music and funfair (some of which is powered by the steam engines). The show is now run by Michael's son, Martin Oliver through Great Dorset Steam Fair Ltd.

The show regularly attracts around 200,000 visitors^[1], and there can be 30,000 people on site, making the fair the fourth largest population centre in Dorset, after Bournemouth, Poole, and Weymouth (the population of the historic town of Dorchester being only half that number).^[2]

The Event costs over a £1 million to put on each year and has raised several £100,000 for charity over the years but increasing Red tape and external costs have reduced the charity donations over the last few years. It takes weeks to set up, as most of the infrastructure has to be put in each year and removed due to planning restrictions. For 2 weeks it is the biggest caravan park in the country with 1000s of trade stand & stall holders along with exhibitors and 1000's of visitors all camping on site. For a number of exhibitors and visitor it is an annual pilgrimage with them going every year.^[3]

ExhibitsEdit

A speciality of the show is the display of traction engines and steam rollers performing the work for which they were designed. Such displays include heavy haulage, threshing, sawing logs, ploughing and road-making. The main arena of the show is purposely sited on the slope of a hill to allow both steam- and internal combustion-powered machinery to demonstrate their capacity for heavy load hauling. One of the main displays is the "Showmans Line up", which is the largest collection of Showmans engines gathered in one place in the world.

The end of the fair is marked with a Thanksgiving Service on the Sunday, at 12 noon, and takes place on the stage of Dean's Bioscope, the Silver Bell, organised for many years by Chris Edmonds, the Lay Chaplain until his recent death in 2007.

For the 40th anniversary, in 2008, the organisers are hoping to feature a display recreating the very first fair, by tracing all of the exhibits that were displayed at the 1968 show.^[4]

The Fair is the biggest event in the UK Steam preservation world, in the country. The Showmans Engines, Fairground rides and Organs, is an impressive sight. GDSF is also one of the biggest events for Tractors, with the Construction plant section growing.

Heavy Haulage RingEdit

The Heavy Haulage ring is a continuous demonstration of machines pulling a variety of loads up the hill during the day, featuring both steam and diesel powered commercial vehicles as well as the steam cars. The ring gives the owners the opportunity to demonstrate the power with demonstrations of the steam locomotives pulling large loads or a string of modern vehicles. Other loads are demonstrated such as loading a steam locomotive or tanks onto low loaders.

Preserved Machinery Edit

Due to the sheer size of the show, it is not possible to photograph every exhibit or list then. With the size of the list for each year so large we have split the page into sub pages for sections. Please expand the lists & photos with any exhibits you saw or presented at the show. (if you need help adding them to the tables just add the info or a summary on the Discussion (talk) page.)

Steam section - Great Dorset Steam Fair 2008 - Steam Section

Featuring -

• Steam Engines / tractors / Road locomotives
• Steam Lorries
• Showmans Engines
• Steam Rollers
• Scale Models of Steam Engines

Tractors - Great Dorset Steam Fair 2008 - Tractors section

Featuring -

• Tractors
• Agricultural machinery
• Stationery Engines

Construction Plant - Great Dorset Steam Fair 2008 - Plant & Road building Demonstration

Heavy Haulage etc - Great Dorset Steam Fair 2008 - Commercial vehicles

• Trucks and Trailers
• Commercial vehicles
• Heavy Haulage demo's & the 'playpen'

Fairground Rides - Great Dorset Steam Fair 2008 - Fairground

Collections & Displays Great Dorset Steam Fair 2008 - Collections

• Collections of old Small tools
• Tent displays
• Misc items

See alsoEdit

• List of Steam Machinery Manufacturers
• Showmans Engines
• List of Collections
• Museums List
• Shows and Meets
• Old Glory Magazine

ReferencesEdit

• Wikipedia article

External linksEdit

• Official site
• BBC Dorset report on 37th Fair (2005)

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Great Dorset Steam Fair. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons by Attribution License and/or GNU Free Documentation License. Please check page history for when the original article was copied to Wikia