It arrived like rolling thunder, cracking the skies above Cholmondeley Castle in Malpas. And it departed with a final roar, leaving a chorus of car alarms triggered by the reverberations of its mighty engines and, quite likely, fields full of dairy cattle traumatised.
The farewell appearance of the world’s last Vulcan bomber flying in its final season before being grounded forever, was the undoubted highlight of the eighth Cholmondeley Pageant of Power. Nothing on land or in the air sounds quite like this delta-wing Cold War bomber developed by AV Roe and made at Woodford Aerodrome.
The pageant also saw appearances by F1 cars, insane Group B rally cars, supercars from the 1980s, an aerobatics display by the Red Bull Matadors and stunts by trials bike maestro Dougie Lampkin, all drawing record crowds of 65,000 over the weekend.
