DOWNPOURS on Sunday may have kept some of the exhibitors away from Tavistock?s Steam Fair but it failed to put off the public. Steam rides around the town were just as popular as on a hot day as people piled onto the engines. Dave Davies from organisers The Robey Trust said it was amazing: ?They were happy to sit on wet seats, in the rain and be dragged around by a steam engine. ?The engines just kept on going all day and apart from some missing displays we considered the day to be a big success,? he said. ?We had never experienced weather like this in our 15 years of running the fair and fortunately holding it in the town centre with some undercover venues helped ? had we been in a field it would have been a sea of mud.? Mr Davies said in steam circles, the event put Tavistock on the map because the organisation had five of its own engines on display for the first time in Bedford Square including one which had not been steamed for over a quarter of a century.
