Attending the local village fayres and fetes were a regular summertime feature of the Brigades early days and it was with some excitement that we received an invitation to attend a ‘Historic Vehicles Day’ at Duxford.  We were apprehensive about driving Queen Eleanor all that way but when we read the words, ‘expenses will be paid’ we thought that we could overcome our apprehension by hiring a low loader.

Enquiries as to the cost of hiring a low loader revealed that the best price was £186 for the day – expensive but then expenses were being paid so the engine was loaded up with the help of a number of young supporters and off we set.

We took the Coventry Climax pump and together they impressed the judges sufficiently to earn us 4^th place out of some forty entries – an impressive result in our first venture of this sort. 

However, it turned out to be the one and only visit to a ‘Historic Vehicles Day’ as when the Chief and the Paymaster General went to the organisers to collect the travelling expenses of £186 they were presented with a voucher for TWO GALLONS OF PETROL.  After much remonstration the organisers agreed to double the value of the voucher but we had to find the balance.

The highlight of the day was the formation high speed parade when Fireman Gingell drove the Queen Eleanor flat out along the runway – ‘flat out’ was about 60 mph and as far as we are aware that is an all time record.