Coalhouse Fort '05

The Essex MVT annual show has led a rather

nomadic life these past few years. After a steady

run of shows at Tilbury Fort the show moved to

Chelmsford for last year’s event, moving on again

this year to Coalhouse Fort at East Tilbury. At this

year’s show there were rumours that the next one

would be at yet another venue!

The fort is a great venue; a historic military site

with a nice grassed area in front for the vehicles.

As well as the vehicle show, the public (and

exhibitors) were treated to guided tours of the fort,

a small aviation museum and a home front exhibition.

The weather... Friday evening was our original

departure date, but the monsoon put everyone

off and we were resigned to spending the weekend

at home. Come Saturday morning and the rain has

stopped, so we decided to make the run down the

A13 to East Tilbury in the Unimog. Arriving a little over an hour later, Davy from Essex MVT parked us under a nice shady tree where we had a lovely view of the (tiny) arena and fort. Lots of other MVs in attendance, including armour (Saladin, Saracen, Fox, Ferret and various other small furry animals), soft skin (Jeep, VW, Bedford, Champ) and a nice display of the DROPS by the army. There were also the usual civilian Land Rovers pretending to be ex-military, but the less said about those the better.

After the public had gone home we were treated to some great barbecue food and a general chin-wag. We had a very interesting conversation about Turkish toilets with one of the stall-holders (I’ll leave the rest to your imagination) and, after a few drinks we all went to sleep... only to be awoken by East Tilbury’s local in-breds performing handbrake-turns in the car park in the wee small hours. They weren’t very good handbrake-turns either. Comments such as: “Gosh, what a naughty bunch of scamps they are!” and “My goodness, rather a noisy lot, aren’t they?” were heard from around the camp. Some people had earplugs in (sensible move, Mick) and were oblivious to the whole thing.

Sunday was sunny and warm. The public car park was absolutely packed and we had some veterans on site as well. Alongside the previous day’s arena events we also had a memorial service and an extended DROPS display where the public were invited to have a go (OK, not all of them, just one or two).

The 25 pounder gun display was good - lots of noise. Stuart gave us a guided tour of his lorry, followed by some good advice on mirror positioning, cheers mate! After the final drill practice for the kids, the crowds went home and we all started to wind down. A quick sprint up the A13 in the Unimog and we were home again. See you all next year folks!

Gareth