AROUND �4,000 was raised towards the continued preservation of Stotfold Water Mill with a steam fair at the weekend. The event was blessed with good weather and when it closed on Sunday over 2,000 had attended the two-day fair. Visitors were treated to a

AROUND �4,000 was raised towards the continued preservation of Stotfold Water Mill with a steam fair at the weekend.

The event was blessed with good weather and when it closed on Sunday over 2,000 had attended the two-day fair.

Visitors were treated to a glimpse of farming in a bygone age when horses and then steam engines dominated the landscape.

Many of the great steam vehicles on display were owned by John Saunders, chairman of Stotfold Mill Preservation Trust who said: "It gave us the opportunity to showcase a mode of industry that links so well with a period when the mill was at its most productive and provides the current generation with a much clearer understanding of traditional farming and milling methods."

There was a steam driven threshing machine, saw milling and stone crushing machines and displays of ploughing by heavy horses, steam engines and vintage tractors.