Biggar Vintage Rally - our picture slideshow

Hundreds of exhibits, lovingly restored and gleaming, were displayed in the showfield off Edinburgh road.

“It was absolutely great,” said Brian Craigie, who chairs the Biggar Albion Foundation.

“We had a perfect day. There were no major problems and we had the best attendance we have had in a long time.

“At one point the car parks were full and we were into the overflow car park and that was starting to fill up.’’

Highlights included a charabanc, and an Albion refurbished by Mark Farrall, from Chester.

In the main picture the car on the left, is a 1916 Albion A10 with Fred Butler. On the right is Mark Farrall with his Albion A16 from 1920. He bought the A16 in 2002 from New Zealand. It had been shipped over there in 1920 for the High Commissioner’s use. He finished restoring it this year, and it recently featured in the film Houdini & Doyle and has been used in other TV series.

There was no regularity run for the veteran and vintage vehicles this year, and that may have been a blessing as the lengthy queues to get into the showfield, a right turn coming from the Biggar side, were a bit shorter than usual!

“In previous years we have had queues going past Coulter and out to Lamington, but this year’s only went to Causewayend,” said Brian.

At its peak, it was still taking 45 minutes to get into the showground.

The huge turnout will help the Albion Foundation with its plans to buy Gladstone Court museum.

That has been left empty by Biggar Museum Trust which has now opened its new showpiece museum further up the High Street.

The current Albion Museum has been sold in the last few days – the site is currently under offer and a planning application will seek a change of use to permit housing to be built there – and the Foundation has only until the end of October to raise £100,000 to buy Gladstone Court and eventually expand at that location.

Sunday’s turnout of visitors should make that easier!