THE Great Dorset Steam Fair has rolled into town and it has spectacular new motoring displays for 2011.

The show, held near Blandford, gets more than 200,000 visitors over five days and occupies more than 600 acres – that’s more than 330 football pitches.

The fair opened on Wednesday and for the first time visitors could see stunt riding and fire jumps from the Royal Signals motorcycle display team, the White Helmets.

Petrolheads can also enjoy a car crushing display from Inter-national Big Pete, one of the leading Monster Truck Teams.

The steam fair is now in its 43rd year and the main attractions remain historic engines of all shapes and sizes.

Pride of place goes to more than 20 vast heavy haulage steam engines, and they will be shifting granite blocks and heavy machinery until the event closes on Sunday.

Beth Ansell, the fair’s spokes-person, said: “We don’t have the figures yet but we believe we’re had a record number of people for the first days.

“We’ve made some changes to staffing and operations and no-one has had any problems getting access to where they need to go.”

You can also see more than 100 heavy horses – they will be taking part in shows and a friendly ploughing competition.

Other attractions include more than 60 steam engine organs, steam lorries, ploughing engines, threshing, woodsawing, vintage vehicles, rural displays, a countryside arena, and entertainment and music.

The fair is held near Tarrant Hinton off the A354 north east of Blandford. Parking is free.

On the day adult tickets cost £17, seniors £15, and children aged 6 to 15 cost £8.