MP judges Cowfold classic car contest

Cowfold village hosted their biggest festival to date with a programme of entertainment that went through the day and into the evening.

The classic car show, organised by Cowfold resident Paul Carugati, included displays from the MG and Morris Minor owner clubs, and attracted more than 100 different classic vehicles.

The MP deputised a young local resident, Adam Bidwell, 11, to help him with the task of selecting the best three cars on show.

Their final selection included a fabulous Rolls Royce Corniche and a Triumph Spitfire that had been owned from new. The overall winner was a 1000cc “AutoUnion SP 1000” convertible built in 1961.

Mr Herbert visited many of the stands at the festival, learning CPR techniques from the Partridge Green Area Responders Team (PART), and hearing about the Cowfold Safer Roads campaign.

Cowfold’s Sussex Pet Rescue, a local charity, chatted to the MP and told him about their success in finding ‘forever’ homes in Sussex for rescued dogs.

Paul Caruguti, member of the Cowfold social committee, said: “We are very grateful to Nick for his involvement and the words of encouragement given to both the car owners and the many stallholders that he met. The festival was a fantastic success and we welcome everyone again at the next one.”

Nick Herbert said: “I enjoyed my visit to the Cowfold Festival and as a car lover it was a great honour to be asked to judge the classic cars. I had an excellent assistant in Adam but it was still very hard to choose three winners from such a strong field.”

Report and picture (above) contributed by The Rt Hon Nick Herbert MP.