Can You Spot The Difference - We Can't!

Members of the Owermoigne branch of the Dorset Aeroplanes, Women and Tractors Re-enactment Society today tried to "achieve the impossible" by attempting to re-stage an iconic scene from the much-treasured pages of Unique Dorset Aeroplanes, Women and Tractors 1944 Christmas Special Edition at this year's Annual Stinsford Steam Rally.

Readers will well remember the excitement which surrounded the new and especially-commissioned facsimile edition of the Magazine's 1944 Christmas Special complete with original artwork by Launcelot Thrupiece FDRA and with an introduction by Amanda J Threadbone which was published in a joint enterprise by by Allen Ian and The Threadbone Press last year. However, for some that excitement was simply not enough and several members of the Owermoigne branch of the Dorset Aeroplanes, Women and Tractors Re-enactment Society were moved "to fulfil a lifetime's ambition by trying to make it happen all over again". Capturing the excitement life in Dorset during the Second World War was not easy, however, as re-enactment enthusiast Dorothy "Doo" Itagen explained. "Capturing the excitement life in Dorset during the Second World War was not easy", she said, "but we were determined to fulfil a lifetime's ambition by trying to make it happen all over again".

The dedicated team during preparations for the tableau vivante

But hard work - in this case a team of 10 working almost every day for more than a year - seldom goes unrewarded and the public enthusiasm for Dorothy and her team's efforts has been loud and clear. "Whilst it is of course absolutely pointless to try to re-enact the un-re-enactable, I take my hat off to them for trying", says re-enactment critic Putta Dampner-Onitt, "at least they got some of it right which is more than can be said of the Canford Cliffs Civil War Re-enactment lot. They can't even get the uniforms right. I mean we had cavaliers with tin helmets and roundheads with beards and feathers ... it was a right pig's breakfast". "So you would have to say", he continued, "that apart from getting the wrong tractor, only some of the right clothes and having to add the aeroplanes afterwards, they did a decent job".

The Stinsford Steam Rally - one of the largest and best-attended in the whole of Dorset continues today until 7pm.

Magical Moments: Members of the public visiting the Annual Stinsford Steam Rally were delighted and surprised to encounter the Overmoigne branch of the Dorset Aeroplanes, Women and Tractors Re-enactment Society's tableau recreating a scene from the the iconic Unique Dorset Aeroplanes, Women and Tractors 1944 Christmas Special, though the aeroplanes were absent due to adverse weather conditions over Compton Valence.