Vintage machines line up at the Anglesey fields
Vintage tractors, binders and a line of restored lorries filled the Anglesey fields again this season, as owners brought working machines back to the showground rather than leave them under covers until next year. The smell of hot oil and cut grass did the rest.
Families walked the rows the way they walk a livestock ring: slowly, with questions. Which farm did that grey Fergie come off. Who still has the spares. Why a machine that once pulled a plough now takes a silver polish and a Sunday trailer.
Not only for looking at
Several engines were started on the hour. A few were put to light work on a strip of ground behind the main line, enough to show a belt and a wheel turning. Owners say that is the point of bringing them out. A tractor that only sits in a shed is a piece of furniture. One that still pulls is a farm tool with a longer life.
The crowd was a mix of island families, visitors off the Holyhead road and men who had driven the same models in the 1960s and 1970s. Young children treated the starting handles as theatre. Older hands treated the makers’ plates as a census of who farmed what, and when.
A showground that still earns its keep
The Anglesey fields have to work between the big county dates. Vintage days help. They fill the car parks without asking for a full livestock programme, and they keep the site in the island’s year. Traders on the food line said the spend was steady rather than spectacular. People came for the machines and stayed for a roll and a cup of tea.
Clubs from across North Wales used the gathering to swap parts lists and to sign up new members. The worry, as ever, is who will keep the knowledge when the present owners stop towing. Days like this are the answer they have: park the machines in a field, lift the bonnet, and let the next pair of hands see how it goes together.
By late afternoon the line began to break as engines were loaded for the journey home. The showground went quiet in the usual way. What lingered was the simple pleasure of seeing old iron stand in good order on Anglesey grass, still able to earn a look.