Join us at the late Derek Marder’s Contractors Yard for a full day of vintage road steam photography

Join us for a full day of vintage road steam photography using steam engines and rollers dating back over one hundred years. This event will run through the afternoon into the early evening.

The late Derek Marder moved onto the site with his parents in the 1940’s, as a young teenager when the site was a pig farm. When he was 16 he brought his first tractor and used it to plough the fields of the smaller farmers around Andover who didn't have their own machine .

He started the contracting business in the early 1950’s, mainly concentrating on demolition work, but many other types of work was undertaken over the following 50+ years. A number of the machines used in his business were parked up after a job & are still in the yard to this day, waiting for their turn to be restored... They include vintage tractors, lorries, diesel rollers, excavators, Caterpillar tractors, cranes & various other machines and trailers. Since Derek's sad passing the guys and girls who have been integral to the yard for many a year have continued his work and indeed have much still to do in his name. Events like ours help raise vital funds to carry this work on, so your support of this event will have a direct impact on what the group are able to do for the future of the yard and its contents.  

Over the years the yard has become a hub for other owners to restore their engines, making use of the various pieces of equipment & machinery that Derek has acquired over the years. There are 20+ steam engines in the yard, most of which are owned by Derek, but also by others who keep the engines there over the winter period for repairs and maintenance.

We are planning to have at least six engines in steam, including:

• 1918 Ruston Proctor steam tractor no. 52453
• 1910 Ruston Proctor steam roller no. 38591
• 1922 Aveling & Porter steam roller no. 10282
• 1923 Wallis & Steevens steam roller no. 7779
• 1910 Ruston Proctor portable engine no. 39487
• 1903 Ransomes, Sims & Jeffries portable engine no. 15169

We will be  running a stone crusher & saw bench with the steam engines and perform some land clearance with a vintage JCB, then rolling in the surface with the steam rollers. The large workshop will be open, with a steam engine alight inside, to create some "atmospheric” photo opportunities, with another engine having work carried out to it as well.

Tea and coffee will be available during the day, but not food so please bring your own supplies to sustain you. Our intended start time is 11.00, but please arrive from 10.40 onwards so that we can do the short but important safety briefing prior to commencing photography. We are delighted to have use of this venue, and look forward to you joining us for an event packed with exciting opportunities to recreate scenes that would have been seen in the English countryside a century ago. The day will finish up at 18:30.