I had a fantastic weekend this year when Northchapel Working Steam Show came back under new Management on Saturday 11th August 2012 and Sunday 12th August 2012. The show was held at:

School House Farm,
London Road,
Northchapel,
West Sussex,
GU28 9EG.

Although the name of the show contains the words "Working Steam" this was certainly not the only thing to see and do on site. This show for 2012 was raising money for St Wilfrid's Hospice in Chichester and I believe speaking to the people who ran the show the following years will see funds raised for other charities.

The costs for the tickets were:
Adults : £6
Children : £4
Family : £16
Over 60's : £5

Upon arriving at the show I was directed into a field to park the car. There was a bit of a walk from the car park but there was a kind lady offering lifts to people who found the walk too much in a golf buggy. I was greeted at the entrance gates by a group of warm and friendly ticket sellers with programmes and raffle tickets (you could even buy your ticket with a debit card!)
So now I am on site and which way do I turn! I am totally awestruck by the size and the amount of things to do, there were four fields containing things to see, I don't know where to start. I decide to turn left and start in the main field with the many full sized traction engines, after this I came to the fairground, covering the left hand corner of the first field, which consisted of many different regular fairground rides like the big wheel and dodgems. After finally dragging my daughter away from the fairground I then came across the huge selection of stationary engines and in front of these was a model tent, St Wilfrid's, a bar, a selection of catering vans including stone baked pizzas, face painting, ice cream vans and wood turners. On the other side of the field I found a selection of fire engines and military vehicles and then up the centre there were vintage cars and motor bikes. In the centre of the main field behind the classic bikes there was an arena which had a list of events going on throughout the weekend, these were listed in the programme. Moving into the next field I was greeted with ploughing tractors, thrashing machines, a lady with bees selling honey and if I remember rightly a cider stand too. Down in the third field there were heavy horses, an archery team, birds of prey and a selection of old fashioned living vans. The final field was used for the heavy horses to plough and many of the tractors also took a turn there too.

Whilst walking around the site the thing that struck me more than the size was the fact that speaking to all the exhibitors they were so passionate about what they were doing, they wanted to tell you everything about their exhibits and guided you to other parts of the show they thought you would enjoy. All everyone wanted was for everyone to have a fantastic day and I can say they totally succeeded with me. Looking around me whilst I was there I could see so many smiling faces, for me there seemed to be a real buzz in the atmosphere. I thought that everyone working and exhibiting at this show were really friendly and very welcoming.

I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent at Northchapel Working Steam Show. I will definitely be going back again next year and I look forward to them releasing the dates for the next show. I would definitely recommend this show to anyone looking for a fun filled day out surrounded by warm friendly people.