Transport Festival Celebrates 15 Years

Bill & Jack Rawles set up in Farnham & await the arrival of the parade from Petersfield

The Festival of Transport took to the road from Petersfield to Farnham on Sunday 25th May 2014

The 15th Festival of Transport was celebrated under blue skies

The Festival of Transport is a local event to Bill Rawles Classic Cars. This is the 15th year that the Herald group of newspapers has organised a coming together of veteran, vintage and classic cars in Farnham town centre. This year the Herald was joined by The Petersfield Post to make the Festival of Transport bigger and better than ever.

Bill Rawles was invited to come along with a few classic cars, along with Jack Rawles and his Ginetta G40. Bill & Jack set up the Ginetta G40 and a Jaguar E Type and waited for the other entrants to arrive.

The parade of cars made their way from Petersfield to Farnham

For the first time the Herald Festival of Transport was part of  The Petersfield Spring Festival. On Sunday morning, the festival entrants assembled on Petersfield town centre and remained on display until midday, when the Petersfield Town Mayor and Mayoress flagged off the vehicles. They drove in a stately parade down the High Street, in front of an enthusiastic, cheering, flag waving crowd. The colourful cavalcade of cars, vans, bikes and trucks, spanning well over a century up to present day, then set off en route to their final destination at the Upper Hart Car Park Farnham town centre, arriving from 1.00 pm until the Festival closed at 4.00pm. The route took in Rake, Liphook, Passfield, Bordon, Kingsley, Whitehill and the Ridgway.

The Farnham Rotary Club did a great job of organising the cars as they arrived in Farnham

It was a glorious site as the multitude and variety of vehicles descended onto Farnahm Town Centre. The entourage was headed by Sir Ray Tindle, owner of the Tindle Newspapers and proprietor of The Herald, in his 1904 Speedwell Dogcart. This was one of five vehicles representing the Herald. The event was highly organised and the voluntary marshals, organised by the The Farnham Weyside Rotary , did a brilliant job of getting the cars allocated to their correct positions, parked up and displayed.

Jack Rawles Ginetta G40 attracting interest from the very young to the not so young

The event could not have had better weather. The sun shone, it was warm, the attendance was fantastic and the atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed. It turned out to be the best day over the Bank Holiday weekend, with the Saturday and the Monday being cold and torrential rain. As local residence to Farnham we saw so many people we knew and of the Healeys that came, all of them were regular customers to the workshop. This year all the participants in the Festival of Transport, the owners and drivers and all who came to the occasion were helping to raise money for two good local causes. Money collected went to The Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham and The Community Hospital in Petersfield. The Herald’s Alan Wooler, who organised the festival and invited Jack Rawles to display his Ginetta said “The sporting vehicles, the two Toyotas from MoTest and Jack Rawles Ginetta G40 were very welcome additions this year, adding to the tradition of providing something of interest to everyone”.

We were pleased to be supporting such a well organised event in a town local to us, raising money for charity while having fun

The total raised from this event was still not known at the time of writing. In summary we had a brilliant day and we were very happy to be supporting this festival and fund raising at the same time. Please take a look at our pictures on Bill Rawles Classic Cars Facebook Page. Unfortunately we will not be able to attend the static display, off the High Street, organised for The Petersfield Summer Festival on Sunday 24th August but we will be at The Herald Classic Car Show which will take place in Alton Town Centre on Saturday 27th September and we will also be at The White Dove Collectors Transport Show at Kingsley, Near Bordon, on Sunday 10th August 2014, another event raising money for our local Hospice.

Being local we met many people we knew and we look forward to maybe meeting you at the next event we have planned