There were long queues to enter the Aveton Gifford Classic Car Show on Bank Holiday Monday as well over a thousand people attended.

Parish Councillor Ros Brousson opened her field behind Timbers Car Park to allow visitors to park after all three car parks in the town were filled as well as cars being parked on verges so their owners could come to see the collection of beauty and power in the playing fields.

As well as vintage cars and lorries, 40 motorcycles also turned up, mostly coming from a club on Dartmoor.

People came together to show off their pride and joys, many of whom have worked on the cars themselves. Tyron Saville of Saville Funeral Directors showed up with his stunning Pontiac Firebird, which he had spent six years restoring.

Paul Smale has owned his 1969 Ford Cortina for a couple of years, but had known the car “forever” as it had been sat with two others in a barn for 20 years. The owner was reluctant to sell them, but couldn’t afford the repairs himself.

Eventually one of Paul’s friends Steve Brown persuaded the owner to sell it to him, and he did the bodywork. Paul then “pestered” Steve to sell it to him, and when he finally managed it, has done a lot of mechanical work to it.

It came out of the shop as a 1600E and was given the “Savage treatment”, dropping a V6 into its engine bay.

While some people work on their cars, repairing and tuning, some, like Mike Oakins built the whole thing himself. His Liege kit car has the guts of a Robin Reliant - the engine and the gearbox, and has now taken him more than 60,000 miles over the last 18 years.

He used to take his Liege to trials, but has recently retired from driving and is now marshalling at the events.

According to the organisers, 1,210 adults came through the gates, not counting the hundreds of children, with the £3 entry fee making £3,630 for the event. The raffle also raised £1,291, as well as a portion of the profits from the five food stalls situated near the play equipment.

Tony Porter, organiser, said: “We were approached for the first time this year by Santander, who have match-funded us £1,000 to add to our total, so all in all we have raised £6,264 for children’s projects in the village - especially the new swimming pool. Our previous fundraising record was just over £4,000.

“The swimming pool is heated via a solar hot water system, where the sun heats water in tubes running across the roof, and the money raised from this year’s event will go towards paying for the electricity needed to run the pump as well as ongoing upkeep of the pool.”

Previous money raised by the AG Classic Car Show has helped support the primary school and the pre-school over many years.

Tony Porter is handing over the reins next year, and he said: “This is the last time that Bee and I will be helping to organise the event, but it is by no means the last Aveton Gifford Classic Car Show.

“We have a committee being formed that will take over the running of it, and we will go and get ourselves the best classic car in the world so we can be a part of it as exhibitors!”, he joked.

“When we first moved to AG, I was sad to hear that the Regatta that used to take place in the village had stopped, this is not going to happen to Aveton Gifford Classic Car Show!”

He went on to thank all the local people who helped make the event a success, including those who manned the gate and collected litter.

You can find out ore about the show on the website: www.avetongiffordclassiccarshow.co.uk