South Hams Vintage Machinery Rally, Sorely Cross, has raised upwards of £2,000 for the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution.

The event, which took place on August 19, attracted hundreds of people to see the ploughs, tractors, steam engines and ploughing horses on display.

This year the club held the ‘Guess the amount of Balloons in the tractor cab’ competition, kindly organised by Martin Hill Building Contractors. Henry Shute guessed closest to the correct answer, which was 306, with 302, Jenny Rogers came second with a guess of 301, Lauren Widger came third with 312, and Hope Elliott came fourth with 300.

The club also award two special cups for exhibitors at the Rally, Best Original Exhibit and Best Restored Exhibit. This year all the exhibits were judged by Mr and Mrs David Peters, the land owners. The Best Original Exhibit was won by Rodney Stidson with his Fordson Power Major and hedge trimmer, while James Blackler took home the prize for the Best Restored Exhibit with his Massey Ferguson 165.

Kate Shute, South Hams Vintage Machinery Club secretary, said: “It was great, the weather was perfect, especially Sunday.

“We had steam engines, ploughs, and the ploughing horses always draw the crowds. We had combines and bailing machines, we are working on making more of the displays moving and not static, we had lots going on.

“This year was also 100 years since the launch of the Fordson tractors and trucks, which drew more people that hadn’t exhibited before.”

This year the South Hams Vintage Machinery Club are supporting the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, a charity that offers financial support to farming people of all ages in hardship. A little steam train was giving rides around the show ground from the RABI tent.

Kate expects the event to have raised more than £2,000 for the charity, and the SHVMC will be supporting the RABI throughout the year at other events through the calendar. In its history, the SHVMC rally has raised more than £35,000 for different charities and causes.

Kate added: “We must thank the landowners, Mr and Mrs Peters, who let us use their prime site for the rally, without them, our helpers and exhibitors, we wouldn’t be here.”

Next year’s rally will take place on August 11 and 12, 2018, and you can stay up to date with news on the SHVMC website: www.shvmc.co.uk