An amateur film produced by Ken Ellwood begins with steam traction engines on display at the Kendal Traction Engine Rally in Cumbria. As well as engines the film features a mechanical saw being powered by a traction engine and a display of vintage and steam powered fire engines. In the second part of the film a steam traction engine provides power for a Willy Dowthwaite’s threshing machine on Barker’s Farm in the village of Kirby Thore in Cumbria. On a gravel track or road, a Marshall 84921...

An amateur film produced by Ken Ellwood begins with steam traction engines on display at the Kendal Traction Engine Rally in Cumbria. As well as engines the film features a mechanical saw being powered by a traction engine and a display of vintage and steam powered fire engines. In the second part of the film a steam traction engine provides power for a Willy Dowthwaite’s threshing machine on Barker’s Farm in the village of Kirby Thore in Cumbria. On a gravel track or road, a Marshall 84921 ‘Reo’ steam traction stands with smoke coming out its funnel (Reg: UP 3325). Nearby a second traction engine and beside it in a field a display of tractors. An older man walks past looking over the traction engine. Two men stand on the footplate as the Marshall engine as it is reversed in front of the other engine, attached with cables and the pulls away the other engines past both spectators and other visitors to the site walking past. A young woman stands polishing a brass plate on a Aveling & Porter 8727 steam traction engine (Reg: TC 2173). Two men and a child ride past on a miniature steam traction engine, she stops polishing, turns and smiles at the camera. A Bass Brewery delivery wagon pulled by two dray horses trots past changes to a Clayton and Shuttleworth 48656 traction engine on display (Reg: AF 3573). A nameplate on the front of the engine reads ‘Old England’. A display of steam traction engines in operation, some attached to other pieces of equipment including a mechanical saw. A display of vintage and steam powered fire engines, nameplate on some of these engines include Edinburgh and Manchester. Men stand beside these engines wearing old-fashioned firemen outfits. A Ruston Proctor 52607 is driven past. The driver stands on the footplate of a McLean 1105 ‘Margaret’ steam traction engine which is revered into a farmyard. The engine is then seen parked outside a house; two men stand atop the footplate. It is drives into a field and a belt is attached from the engine to a threshing machine, a name written on the thresher reads ‘H. Dowthwaite’. With the engine now providing power to the thresher the two drivers check over the engine, one oiling a piston while the other checks underneath. Two men climb atop the threshing machine and begins to fork wheat or another cereal crop into the machine. A small crowd gather around watching, the first sack of corn is tied up as the work continues. In a meadow a man rides a horse-drawn grass-cutter which is mowing a meadow.