Goochland’s Field Day offers assorted attractions

About 30,000 people are expected to venture to eastern Goochland County this weekend for the 18th Field Day of the Past, an event known for its unique presentation of the region's rural heritage.

The three-day celebration, which started yesterday, offers typical county fair offerings: funnel cakes, thrill rides and carnival games. But most of the 50 acres dedicated to Field Day have been transformed into a setting where volunteers re-create turn-of-the-century agricultural and industrial workplaces.

Visitors are greeted by the revving engines of tractors, the rattling of corn shuckers and the deep whistles that announce the startup of the steam-powered sawmill.

At the Sorghum Mill, local farmers demonstrate how sorghum, grown in the Southeast as an alternative to sugar cane, is pressed and cooked down into syrup.

"Back in the old days, wagons would go from farm to farm, sharing the press," said Chester Brooks of Amherst County.

"But nobody really raises it anymore," added Calvin Turner of Varina, noting that this year's crop came from a school in Petersburg.

Many of the skills shown at Field Day have faded into obsolescence, as have many of its permanent structures.

As the once-rural community of Short Pump developed into a bustling area of corporate commerce, old businesses such as the Short Pump Grocery and the Short Pump Transmission Shop were moved to the Field Day show grounds.

Springfield Baptist Church, built in 1887 in Henrico County and one of only a few black churches from its era that remain locally, was moved to the grounds in 2007.

A new attraction this year is the Rocketts Voting Precinct House from Sandy Hook. The small wooden house was built around 1890 and was used as a voting precinct until the early 1960s.

A few of the demonstrators are simply showing off what they still do as their day job.

At the blacksmith shop, Scott Hingley, who grew up in Short Pump and now lives in Nelson County, has crafted a career forging steel gates, signs and old-fashioned hardware for restoration projects.

"In the old days, there was a blacksmith shop on every corner. Everything was made by hand in those days, but the Industrial Revolution changed all that," Hingley said. "Not too many people do it now -- which is a good thing, if you make your living at it."

Hingley said he remembers Short Pump when it was still rural; he even went to school with some of the boys who once worked at the Short Pump Transmission Shop.

"I'm glad they preserved some of it," he said.

Amy Condra is editor of the Goochland Gazette.