VINTAGE tractors drew hundreds of people to the streets of a small Staffordshire town as onlookers anxiously awaited the antique machines as they plodded in a parade.
Haughton and District Old Friends staged its ninth annual charity tractor run yesterday, with a convoy of around 100 vintage tractors following a 20-mile circular route from Haughton to Norbury Junction and Sutton, passing through Gnosall and Church Eaton along the way.
Roger Perry, one of the organisers, said: “We were blessed with the weather this year. The sunshine brought out more people than usual.”
Hundreds of people turned out to watch the rural parade as the tractors trundled through the lanes at an average 12mph.
An army of marshals had to move in to clear mud off the road on the Gnosall to Church Eaton stretch of the route.
At Norbury Park the drivers took a breather for hot drinks and some 400 mince pies, freshly made the day before by Mr Perry’s wife Pat and daughter Fiona, who also drove one of the tractors.
Funds were raised for the Midland Air Ambulance and Katharine House Hospice in Stafford although all the money has yet to be counted. Around GBP1,600 was collected for the same charities last year when the route was cut short because of the icy conditions.
