Probably the oldest visitor to the Crofton Pumping Station on the Kennet and Avon Canal over the bank holiday weekend was 98-year-old Ethel Giles.

Her father William Giles was the last engine house manager in the days when the pumping station provided water for steam engines on the adjacent railway track.

He managed the pumping station until the late 1950s when it fell into disuse altogether.

For the first time the annual August bank holiday steaming weekend featured a flower, fruit and vegetable show that attracted ‘a fair number of entries’, said Maxine Hawkins, who is warden at Crofton along with her husband Nigel.

It was already decided, she said, to the make the show a part of the bank holiday activities in future years.

Over the weekend almost 1,000 people paid to visit the Grade I pumping station and see the two restored steam engines at work. One of them, an 1812 Boulton and Watt, is the oldest working beam engine in the world and is still capable of doing the job for which it was installed, that is pumping water to the summit of the canal.

Miss Giles, who lives in a nursing home on the South Coast, returns every August bank holiday for the steaming day.

Mrs Hawkins said: “She has maintained an interest in Crofton ever since it was restored and she likes to talk about how she knew it when she was in her 20s.

“She hopes to return again next year and for as many more years as she can.”

The last opportunity of the year to see the Crofton engines in steam will be over the weekend of September 26 and 27 from 10.30am to 5pm each day.