The West Woodhay Garden Show and Balloon Event was the launching of the new BBM&L Trailer.
The weekend of the 20th-21st June was the West Woodhay Garden Show and Balloon Event in West Berkshire.
The museum had been asked to provide a backdrop to the show by inflating old balloons from the collection, and local pilots could free fly morning and evening.
The BBM&L had been given a donation towards the purchase of a trailer back in November 2008 by Mike Allen, founder of the BBM&L.
In the intervening months, much work had been done. It was cleaned and mended, and emblazoned with the British Balloon Museum & Library logo and name, and of course the website address.
Many thanks must go to Martyn Turner, Jason Lomax, his wife Louise, Richard d’Alton and others, for transforming the trailer into the gleaming item it is today.
At last it got its first outing at West Woodhay as it was set up in the launch field for the weekend.
It attracted much interest from the many pilots and crew. As you can see from the photographs, it also has a cut away cylinder, and cut away burner, plus an area to display the BBM&L garments and it is hoped the museum can acquire a laptop or monitor to show DVDs of ballooning events.
The BBM&L had also been given a small tent in the public arena overlooking the launch field at West Woodhay.
This attracted a lot of people young and old. Children were particularly interested in the collapsible old gas basket used by British secret agents during the war. The exhibition in the tent was tailored to West Berkshire and the part it played at the start of hot air ballooning with pictures of Rev John Bacon and his wife.
Many other pictures supported the fact that ballooning is a bright and colourful sport as well as an amazing spectacle whatever the weather.
It was a great weekend to promote ballooning and the British Balloon Museum and Library. With the trailer we can now take the museum to the public instead of them looking for us.
