Torbay Steam Fair goes ahead day after it was cancelled due to poor weather

• Watch Will Charley's report

Thousands of people have descended on fields near Brixham for the annual Torbay Steam Fair.

The three-day event, now in it's 36th year, had to be called off on Saturday (5 August) due to strong winds and rain, but returned amid sunshine today.

Dozens of large and small steam engines took part in the display, alongside vintage vehicles, fairground rides and food stalls.

Tony Brooks, the show manager who has run the event for all of it's history, said having to shut the site yesterday was disappointing.

Tony said: "It's really great, because after a week of setting it up and then having a good day Friday, we thought that we might have a record weekend like we did last year. But unfortunately the rain came, and then the winds, so we had to close the site at nine o'clock.

But he added that today saw the show go ahead as usual.

Tony said: "We've got the steam engines here, we've got threshing, wood-sawing, there's the showmen's engines - they'll be driving the fairground rides as they did in the 1930s and 1940s. We've also got parades in the ring, vintage motorbikes and vintage cars, tractors and plenty of trade stands for people to look around.

"A very good entertainment marque and for the first time this year, we've got a childrens' programme run by a young lady, so all sorts of events for the children outside of the marque."

Last year, Tony estimates the event welcomed around 15,000 people to the site and he hopes that a similar number may have come this weekend - with more people coming on Sunday following the previous day's closure.

Among those at this year's event was Joseph Mitchell from Dundee, the owner of a 1907 barrelled showman's engine used to to tow and power fairground rides.

Joseph had travelled more than 550 miles to display his engine, called Lord Nelson, which is based in Exeter.

He said: "My father bought another engine almost 50 years ago, so I got the 'steam bug' then. And I've always wanted a showman's engine.

"The opportunity came five years ago to buy Lord Nelson in quite a sorry state, so we bought it and for the last three and a half years we've been busy restoring it to the condition you see today."

Today's event saw people of all ages getting involved, with teenagers driving tractors through to pensioners displaying their pride and joy.

But 'Pasty', the commentator at one stall, said the event is all about educating the next generation.

He said: "It's showing the general public how it used to be. So really, we're educating them on our past history.

"We get people coming along [asking]: 'how is a steam engine powered?' They don't know about fire, they don't know about coal, they don't see it in their houses today, so we are bringing the past back to them."

One man who has made an especially difficult journey to be at Torbay Steam Fair was Jimmy Bowery.

The owner of a 1930s fairground ride called a skid, Jimmy had had to make three trips back and forth from Norwich to get the ride to the site, suffering a wrecked gear box in the process.

On arrival, Jimmy then had to rely on the support of some local teenagers to help him construct the skid, which took three days.

But he said it's all worth it because of how rare and historic the ride is.

Jimmy said: "There's not many of them about now. I think there's two of them in operation at the moment. It's very hard to get about [but] the people love a skid, it's a family ride and you can put teenagers on it a little bit faster."

Joking about his journey, he added: "Someone said I saved the ride from going to the grave, and I said, 'it's putting me in one'."