Saturday 9th May saw our Chair, John Puddy and team at the annual Lynton and Lynmouth Steampunk Gathering. And what a turnout! It was worth attending just to people watch as the costumes were tremendous, so much effort and fun goes into the day.
Freshspring were attending with Edna, John’s little steam engine who was the star of our show with admirers of all ages wanting to know all about her and lining up for a ride along Lynton main street, alongside all the regular traffic!  All was well though, with Wendy going ahead waving the safety flag and carrying the donation bucket – we even had someone depositing money from their rolled down car window!

However, the highlight for John was probably the visit from the lovely local dance collective  Switchframe who wanted a photo on Edna and insisted John join them. You can see the delight on John’s face, from the photo!

The Freshspring model ship was proudly on display which drew much attention and provided us with a great opportunity to talk about the ship’s history, her near miss from the scrap yard, her marvellous rescue and restoration and our aims for her to return to sea.   We met with lots of people on holiday, Germany, Moldova and Brazil among them, but we still managed to connect with others more locally who are now  looking forward to visiting Freshspring on a Sunday during the summer season.   As even, such brilliant connections are made from attending these community events

We must also thank the event organisers for looking after us so well and making the set up and take down as straight forward as possible.