Heatons Bridge Inn, Burscough, to host annual military vehicles and equipment display

HEATONS Bridge Inn, at Burscough, has become established, (courtesy of proprietors Steve and Jacqui Winrow), as the host to ½ yearly events at which a range of military vehicles and equipment are gathered together and displayed by the enthusiasts who restore and maintain them.

The military vehicle group at Heatons Bridge is now recognised as a formal 'Mid-Lancs' Area of the national Military Vehicle Trust (MVT) organisation in this, its 50th Anniversary year. It is assembling for the 1st of the ½ yearly events for 2018, 'The crank up', on the weekend of 7 April to 8 April 2018, and this is its 1st event in its form as a new MVT Area - 'Mid-Lancs (Heatons Bridge) MVT Area 53.'

The group comprises a number of like minded enthusiasts from regions such as Merseyside, Cheshire, and South Cumbria / North Lancs, all with interests in preserving and renovating military vehicles and equipment of different ages. It takes the opportunity to display these along with associated militaria at various shows and events across the Area including the ½  yearly gatherings at Heatons Bridge.

The April 2018 event is also expecting to include a small re-enactors camp display of the American 82nd Airborne Division.

Anyone with a military or military related vehicle or camp display is also welcome to join us and camp over for the weekend. Participants are reminded that it will be their own responsibility to provide 1st aid kits and fire extinguishers, as appropriate with their vehicles / displays, as there are no central provisions for this.

It is a family friendly event and members of the public are more than welcome to come and see the displays and chat with the participants and there are no entry fees (just remember to bring some wellies as the weather leading up to this event has been wet and the field is likely to be somewhat muddy depending on the extent to which the weather improves and allows the field to dry out!)

Contact details are as follows:-

► Pub - Steve Winrow:- 01704 840549.

► MVT - Paul Connolly:- 01704 545786.

► MVT - Angela Brown on 07774931464.

The Heatons Bridge Inn is a friendly country pub with open fires, a great range of real ales, and hearty good food. The menu descriptions and ale names are usually 'adjusted' for the event to reflect the military theme and 'spam fritters' have been known to be specially added to the menu!!

The vehicles which attend include numerous World War 2 vehicles such as the iconic Willys, Ford, and Austin Champ Jeeps, military Dodge, Morris, and Austin staff cars and the 'Whistling Reo' 2 1/2 ton truck which is pictured at the top of the event 'Flyer.' The vehicles are not however confined to WW2 exhibits. They include vehicles of all eras including:- post WW2 Hotchkiss jeeps, Land rovers in various configurations, Bedford RL 4 ton trucks, armoured personnel carriers (including a Saracen which has served in Northern Ireland and Korea), military motorbikes, and military staff cars. Previous years have also seen the predecessor to the Reo - the 'Jimmy' (GMC CCKW) 2 1/2ton truck, Daimler Ferret scout cars, and Green Goddess fire engines.

Fulwood local Jonny Newbould is the group's mechanical maestro who has a vast knowledge of these vehicles and is often called upon to help with field repairs when things go unexpectedly wrong with some of these temperamental vehicles. Last year, he also finished a superb complete rebuild of a period Morris saloon car (soft top) for his wife Susie, which might also put in another appearance if circumstances and weather permit.

Merseyside local Kevin Reilly is a member of the group and owns an extensive personal collection of military exhibits which includes a 'mighty Howitzer' field gun with associated crew bus, an Abbot self propelled gun with its Mighty Antar tank transporter, a couple of Diamond T's, a Swiss Saurer 4ton truck and a range of other trucks and smaller vehicles. 1 of these is the Landrover fire tender pictured on the event 'flyer.'  Because of the logistics of transporting such a range of vehicles, we never know exactly what he will be able to bring along, but as he regularly seems to add yet another vehicle to his collection we are always prepared for the occasional surprise!

Members' displays include a range of militaria including:- various firearms, bayonets and other weapons, uniforms, radio equipment and field equipment and as mentioned earlier, we are being joined for this event by a small re-enactors group displaying an Able Company, 82nd Airborne Division camp.

A regular part of the display is also a 25 pounder field gun rig belonging to Frank and Angela Brown (our Area Secretary) who run Pegasus WW2 Displays; a company which specialises in British Army uniforms, equipment and memorabilia, and undertakes educational displays for Schools and businesses. They also carry out display firings of their 25 pounder at various venues across the region. Their field display comprises a Morris Commercial C8 Quad tractor unit, which tows an ammunition limber behind, and the field gun itself behind that! Frank and Angela provide demonstrations of the team operation of the field gun at the Heatons Bridge events, but without the black powder, due to the horses being in the adjacent field.  At 1 event they took their entire 3 part rig across the off road hill course, at Burscough airfield. This was quite something to see with the 3 linked units twisting to various different angles independently as they travelled over the hill!!

Blundellsands locals Dale and Dean Sawyer bring their really well restored Hotchkiss jeep to the event and organise a 'road run' for any vehicles that wish to join in around the Saturday lunchtime period. This is a convoy of military vehicles out onto the public roads along a route set up by and led by Dale and Dean with a halfway stop at a suitable establishment for refreshments or ice cream, before returning to the Heatons Bridge campsite. The run typically extends for around 2 hours and attracts friendly waves and cheers from unsuspecting bystanders at the roadsides when they see the line of vehicles passing by.

The Inn itself is located on the canal at Heatons Bridge and Steve and Jacqui Winrow have retained the World War 2 freestanding brick pillbox which formed part of the UK's Home Guard defence provisions, on the grounds. It is planned to set up a small home guard display inside the pillbox again to give some feel for what it might have been like for a soldier to have had to 'hole up' there.

The group sets up the site on the Friday and the event then runs through the whole of the Saturday (when participants usually join in with a quiz and some Karaoke in the pub in the evening), and runs through to lunchtime on the Sunday. There is no charge, so why not come along and share the atmosphere of a Military Display for free with the enthusiasts who would be pleased to answer any questions you may have?

Please click on here to download the 'flyer' for the event if you have an locations you can put it up on, as a poster, please do!

For SatNav directions, please put in the following:- 2 Heatons Bridge Road, Ormskirk, L40 8JG.