IT'S full steam ahead for this year's Chickerell Steam and Vintage Show.

With the rally dates July 2 to 3 looming, now seems a timely opportunity to take a look back to the origins of this fast-growing show.

Steam enthusiast Andy Spracklen has shared this collection of photos from 1965 to 1973 with Looking Back.

He said: "The show has grown a lot and it's now about as big as the Dorset County Show.

"Many years ago the first rally was in Chickerell Road where the new houses have been built now.

"It was then known as the Weymouth Traction Engine Rally. It was one of the leading shows in the area and thousands of people used to attend.

"The original rally was organised by the round table as a fundraising exercise and it used to be held the same week as carnival week in August."

The pictures hark back to a time when people were really passionate about steam engines, Andy said.

"In the 1950s and 60s, people really enjoyed that type of thing and it was a really popular event, that all disappeared a bit in the early 1980s and then it started to make a big comeback in the early 2000s so we brought the show back.

"They are so popular now because we've had a lot of restoration television programmes and it's because of people like Fred Dibnah that young people are getting more interested in it.

"Steam rallies these days have changed a lot. There are lots of massive things going on at them now. They've had to diversify."

Back between 1965 and 1973, the family entertainment was somewhat limited at the shows, Andy said.

"Besides the engines we had the ice-cream van, the vintage cars, motorcycles, hovercrafts and acrobats and they all proved very popular.

"The rally would move around a bit and we had it at Curtis Fields, at All Saints school for a year and also on the Value House site in Wyke Regis."

The rallies disappeared during the 1980s when interest in steam waned, but came back in 1998 as the Portland Steam and Vintage Show.

"It was at All Saints Church on Portland and came back and from there, moved to Southwell Business Park on Portland until 2010," Andy said.

He became involved in the show from 2011.

Steam has almost been a life-long passion for Andy. One of his favourite engines is the 1840 Duke of Windsor, which he first encountered as a five or six-year-old and remembers climbing up on the back of.

He said: "I used to live near Radipole Lane in Weymouth and I started going to steam fairs from the age of three. I loved them so much that I have my own steam engine now.

"I've been a mechanical engineer and service engineer and I still work with cars now for M.M.C Dorchester Citroen.

"I've travelled to a lot of steam shows as far afield as Norfolk and Llandudno and it's surprising how many people remember the Weymouth show from the 60s and 70s."

This year's show will have a real feel of nostalgia to it, Andy said.

"Some of the engines we have this year will be from the old days of the show and we'll have engines that will have come from all over the south of England. This one should be the biggest yet."

One popular event, which you can see in these photos, made up part of the original rally and will be resurrected for 2016, Andy said.

"We're going to be doing the tug of war with a big engine again and will invite as many people as possible to take part."

Around 5,000 to 6,000 visitors are expected to this year's rally, which is at Moor Farm, off the B3157 at Knights in the Bottom near Chickerell.

See the website chickerellsteamshow.uk for more information.

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