Duchy Ford Show Weekend 2025

On Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd June, the Duchy Ford Club hosted their annual 2-day show in aid of Cornwall Blood Bikes and Cornwall Air Ambulance. This year, the show was at a new venue, Watergate Bay Touring Park.

We are pleased to announce that at this year’s show raised a total of £7,000 for local charities. We raised £5,000 which will be shared between Cornwall Blood Bikes and Cornwall Air Ambulance, and Saturday evening’s auction raised £2,000, for Little Harbour.

Club chairman, Mark Roberts, recounts this years show experience:

Thursday

Club members Mark, Adam Hicks, Dave Bradley and Keith Edwards made their way to Watergate Bay Touring Park (with this being our first time at this site, we were very excited about the weekend).

On arrival we met our Health & Safety Officers, John and Dan Wye, who had made an early start. After a chin-wag, Adam & Dave went to mark out the traders pitches, while Keith and I headed out to put up road signs. Once back on site, our camping secretary Glen arrived, and then I had a call from John (our Ford auto jumbler) who had a tyre blowout at Launceston. I tried many tyre companies but had no luck. So, Adam suggested we take his van and Glen’s trailer and recover John. A couple of hours later we were back at Watergate Bay. What a first day!

Friday

Another beautiful day, with more campers and traders arriving, we had more help, so we marked out our club stand and put up 3 gazeboes. The public car park gateway had a big rut, so with the help from Watergate staff, we managed to level it out, then Adam trimmed the hedge. With more signage and a last few tweaks, we were ready. So, it was down to the club house for a well-earned beer.

Saturday

Saturday started dry and after a quick breakfast, at 7.00am we had a meeting with John Wye about how the day would run, and then it was then all systems go. Cars started coming in at 7.45am. First car in was a Ford Sierra XR4x4, who was very interested in joining our club. More cars started to arrive, but in the distance, we could see a black cloud heading for us, this meant 15 to 20 minutes of heavy rain with thunder! But once this passed, we had a dry and sunny rest of the day. More cars arrived and we ended up with almost 80 cars on display, with many traders and things to do. For the younger ones, Lightning McQueen was very popular along with the bouncy castles. There were some stunning cars on display including a 1962 classic Capri and some gorgeous Mustangs. During the day we sold raffle tickets for the afternoons raffle, and there was a list of exhibitors put together for our car run at 4.00pm. With 15 cars registered we lined up and there must have been almost 30 cars by the time we left the site - people had decided last minute to join our road run out to Newquay. Lead by Keith, we headed out for a tour around Newquay, with some stunning views and lots of interest from the public.

Once back it was a quick change and freshen up ready for Saturday evening.  With the “Straw Dogs” due on stage around 7.00pm, it was a rush to order food and drink. Once on stage, they were brilliant, we loved all their stuff but James’s 'All Sit Down' was a big crowd favourite. After 40 minutes the band had a break and it was time for our auction and Brian Goldsworthy, a.k.a the Mouth of the South, managed again this year to beat the cake record with a winning bid of £150! And it didn’t stop there, as in the end we raised over £2,000 for Little Harbour, Children's Hospice. The band came on again, and carried on where they left off - they are already booked for next year, thank you Straw Dogs for your entertainment and continued support. The evening was finished by Darren and Adam spinning some tunes. Brilliant evening from start to finish.

 Photo credits James Webber/Jenni Lunn

Sunday

Again, an early start, and again an early shower, but this time it moved on more quickly and it was a fine day. Cars started to arrive and the field started filling up nicely. We had some great cars on display, almost parked together was a 1922 Model T, a Ford GT40 and a Ford RS200, 3 very rare cars. The RS200 is actually owned by Peter Vosper, who we were delighted to welcome to the show. With more cars arriving, the show looked great and a total of over 140 various Fords attended. Just after 11.00am I joined Keith, John Adamson, Jenni Lunn and Frank Coia, and we started the difficult task of judging the cars.

During both days we had various musicians on stage and with Brian doing what he does best, there was a great atmosphere. 

At 3.00pm the raffle was called, followed by the trophy presentations. The Car of the Show trophy was presented by Peter Vosper.

Trophy Winners

Best Project – Ford Model A – Owned by Neville Reed

Best Paint – Ford Model T – Owned by Chris Blewett

Best Engine – Escort Cosworth – Owned by Paul Hayles

Best Original – Ford RS200 – Owned by Peter Vosper

Best Modified – Ford 100E - Owned by Mark Perryman

Best Import – Ford F47 Truck – Owned by Jeff Pryor

Best Wheels – Focus RS - Owned by Martin King/Nick Malone

Best Club – Cornwall/Dorset RS Owners (who combined together for the show)

Furthest Travelled – Ford Probe 16v - Owned by Duncan Thomas (travelled from Essex)

Judges Choice – Escort RS2000 – Owned by Lee Evans

Members Choice - Escort RS1600 – Owned by Carl Osborne

Public Choice – Escort RS1600 – Owned by Carl Osborne

Peter Vosper (right) presenting Carl Osborne (left) with the Car of the Show trophy. 

Duchy Ford Club would like to thank the following:

All Duchy Ford Club Members who helped before and during the weekend.

All Traders and Crafters that supported our weekend.

Peter Vosper

Symonds Construction

Cornwall Flat Roofing

Brian Goldsworthy

Straw Dogs

Kayla Bradley (The Nutty Effect) Musician

Graham Baumbach Musician

Damon Morey Musician

Sirenna Moyle Musician

Dr Pop and the Rocket Musician

Matt Keen Musician

To all members of the public who supported our show, hopefully we will see you next year on May 16th & 17th.

Until next time,

Mark