MORE than 150 vintage vehicles wound their way through Bishopstone’s narrow streets on Sunday to be part of the Drive It Day extravaganza.

Petrolheads flocked to the Helen Browning’s Royal Oak pub to see the classic cars and motorbikes on display and chat to the owners, who were eager to explain all about their history.

Military vehicles, stylish sports cars, American motors from the ‘50s and ‘60s, plus a Ferrari worth more than a million pounds all packed into the pub’s car parks.

Debbie Newman, a paramedic at the Queens Drive ambulance station, brought a 1958 ambulance which she’d had shipped over from America five years ago.

She said: “I believe it’s the only American Volkswagen ambulance in the country, and the sirens and lights still work.

“This is my favourite pub so it’s always nice to drive out her and have a look at other vehicles

“We bring this every year and Tim’s always very welcoming.”

Tim Finney is the landlord of the Royal Oak and the organiser of the event, which was part of a series of similar car shows happening all over the country on the same day.

He said: “It’s become a fixture in our calendar, it’s astonishing how many vintage cars are based in and around Swindon.

“Every year, I give a £250 prize to the best combination of vehicle and owner.”

Martin Williams from Swindon bought his old Humber off ebay.

He said: “It’s been in the collection in the barn of some military guy in France for about 25 years, then a dealer in Kent bought all his military vehicles but wanted to get rid of this one as it was just a car, so he put it on ebay.

“I bought it just before Christmas, got it registered and back on the roads, and I’ve got three others.”

Bob Taylor from Lydiard brought his restored 1936 Austin 12 to the show.

He said: “I’ve had Betsy for eight years, it’s a rolling restoration – it’s always having stuff done to it.

“All the original leather is still in there.

“Nowadays, not many people want to go around in cars this old, they’re challenging to drive and not very fast, but my worry was that they’d disappear from the roads altogether, so I bought one to keep.

“For every day you drive it, you need a day of fiddling with it to keep it working and get it ready, but I love it.”

Arthur Swan was in charge of guiding the vehicles to the pub.

He said: “I’m like the quality control, I decide if they get to go in or have to park down the road with the visitors.

“This has definitely been our best year yet, we’ve had an excellent turnout with some very rare and unusual vehicles, and we were already using the overflow car park at 11am.”

Co-organiser Paul Cadogan explained how these car shows began: “13 years ago, the EEC wanted to ban any car 20 years or older from all European roads.

“Someone thought that anyone with a vintage car could go out on the road for one day a year, it’s grown from there and now there are meets all over the country – this is our 11th year.”