Newark Gathering 27-31 May 2026 - Official Announcement

The 22nd CCS/CPL Annual UK Gathering - Newark

27 - 31 May 2026

You are welcome to join us for the annual gathering at Smeatons Lakes, Newark, Nottinghamshire.
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Collectors of stoves, pressure lamps & blowlamps are all welcome. Please bring along some of your collection for display! It is also a great opportunity for swaps & trading with other collectors!

Originally a weekend event, many people now arrive early. The field is booked from the Wednesday at our special rate. Please come along even if it's for the Saturday night.
No need to book but if possible drop me a PT to let me know you're coming so I have a rough idea of numbers.

Cost is £9.50 per night per tent, caravan or campervan. Extra tents or gazebo's housing displays are free.

We look forward to seeing you there!

More info: DO NOT BOOK IN at reception. Please just pop in to reception & tell them you are attending the lamp & stove rally & they will likely point you in the right direction. I will collect the pitch fees during the event. They will also give you a key code for the barrier.

There is a height restriction barrier which is closed around 8pm, preventing high vans or caravans entering or leaving the site. If it is closed you will need to park up elsewhere until the following morning. It may be possible to come to some arrangement with the warden so if this is an issue give the site a ring. Normal vehicles are not affected. See my message below.

The normal rate for the site is around £30 per night for 2 people with a car. Our discount rally rate of £9.50 per night per tent, caravan or campervan does not include use of the main toilet & shower block. We do have access to the basic mens & womens portakabin toilet close to the rally field which is just toilet & sink. Also the Anglers toilet as in previous years. If you wish to use the showers in the main block by reception there is a fee to pay (£1 I think). The shower block uses a numerical key entry system. In the past some people have paid their fee & passed the number around. This has upset the site manager & as a result you may find they open the door for you rather than giving you the code. If we are trusted again this year please respect the system & pay the fee otherwise it may be difficult to secure the venue or goodwill in future years.

We are also asked to keep dogs on leads & not allow them to foul the rally field - obviously accidents do happen in which case you are respectfully asked to clean up after your dog. The site provide a dog walk area.

Please bring a bin bag or two & dispose of your rubbish in the skips provided or take it home. There are no recycling facilities on the site I'm aware of.

There is fishing available on site but it needs to be booked in advance.

There are no hookups on the rally field.

No ball games on field.

TRADERS - For Trade application please contact me by private conversation or txt me your email address & message to send forms to zero7766 zero38612

Smeatons Lakes - website
Download this page as a PDF​

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Oh good

 

Actually, it's 7:30pm.

Last year we were delayed because of roadworks on the A1 and didn't arrive until 7:45 only to find the barrier was already closed. However, after an appologetic 'phone call to the warden, we were given a code to punch in which opened the barrier for us.

 

Don't forget your hat & suncream!

I'll be onsite from Monday (bar popping to the shops).

 

Hoping to come up on Saturday for the day.

 

Hoping to be there just after mid-day Wednesday if all goes well well. Can’t wait chat lamps, stoves, beer etc!

Regards, Jeremy

 

I’ll be arriving Thursday afternoon, looking forward to it.

 

Sadly I can't come this time. A couple of weeks ago I fell and broke my hip. I'm recovering but can't drive or walk very far. It will be a few more weeks until I'm better. Hopefully I'll see you all next year.

I had some new additions to the collection to bring along, including a Svea stove from David Shouksmith and a pair of Tilley R1 radiators from someone from Yorkshire at last year's event whose name I've forgotten (possibly Henry Plews?). The stove and one of the radiators are working again now. Plus I have a vintage Coleman 200 which I brought back from Canada (not yet restored), a more modern Coleman 285 Dual Fuel (working) and Coleman Northstar (pump needs attention). Also a calcium carbide mining lamp from the 1920s - one for Prescall of this forum. I'll try to post some pictures in due course.

Have fun and post lots of pictures!

 

@hamid1
So sorry to hear of your accident, Hamid, and that the consequences rule out your attendance. I wish you a full and speedy recovery.

For my part, I’ll be attending and will post photos for sure.

John

 

@presscall Thankyou for your kind message of support.
I hope to make a full recovery in due course. It's just bad timing that I won't be fit enough to join you all this coming weekend.I really enjoyed the last two Newark gatherings I went to. Thanks again - I'm sure you'll have a good time.

 

Hi Hamid

So sorry to hear of your misfortune, I hope you have a successful recovery. As John @presscall has said there will be plenty of photographs for you to enjoy.

Sending you best wishes and hope to see you next year.

Regards, Jeremy

 

Looking forward to seeing you all, arriving Friday.
Best wishes Chris

 

Anyone arriving after 19:30 contact me to open barrier & height limit barrier.

07766 038612

 

I’m so disappointed, John and I thought we had a very good chance of (finally) returning to Newark but we made a promise to our neighbours that any time they wanted to take off we would be happy to look after their dog and two cats. You’ve guessed it, having just had a holiday in Corfu and travelled to London for a wedding just this last weekend, they’re off this coming weekend to Harris! Maybe next year………..

 

Ahhh! Frustrating!


The edge of the field is filling up. Please feel free to set up in a row down the centre.

 

I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to come down next year

Alec.

 

You and me both Alec. I reckon there will be quite a few lamps lit by this time.

 

Back from Newark. Great folk, great time.

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I packed a 6kg Calor Gas propane cylinder this year, not to power a twin-burner+grill but a Bullfinch floodlight, ignition by tugging on a wire loop to trigger a piezo spark.






Though “wonder if it would project a beam to light my way to the toilet block?” crossed my mind, I decided not to create dazzle in camp, but used it to illuminate my display.

My table and some favoured items I took along, daytime.




Tabletop inspection, courtesy Jim, @Wayland and Steve (on loan from Texas, USA).




At night, capably assisted by the Bullfinch flood.






Better yet, the Bullfinch facilitated instant halos for those inclined to try out the effect - Chris @Blackdog Jeremy @X246A and a selfie for me.








Playtime over, I got down to some baking with my Outback Oven using an Optimus Vega butane stove to power it. The Vega is a perfect choice, being low-slung and not wobbly, offering highly controllable output (avoids scorching the bake) and with the remote fuel source well away from the hot zone.






The River Trent’s right alongside the site, herons stationed like human anglers might at each individual’s favoured fishing spot. Three I counted in the space of a hundred meters.




My French alcohol stove embellished with aeroplanes gained admirers, taken with its whimsical flight of aeroplanes heading into the sunset.




Suitably shielded from the breeze (and to create a bit of shade from the bright sunlight in order to gauge a simmering output flame) the stove wasn’t just pretty, but was ideal for thickening up my meatball sauce for a pasta dish.




An excursion into Newark with Jezza for some excellent ale at the Prince Rupert pub, formerly the Woolpack and originating as a Wealdon house in 1452.








Thanks Ross @spiritburner for making it possible and to all for your wonderful companionship. May your flames continue to shine bright - selfie halos can be arranged for a small fee.

John

 

Newark photo dump. Thanks to all who attended. Great display all around the field. We had new attendees this year who were delighted by it all! See you all next year!

 

Excellent!

 

Splendid images!

 

Great images, thanks.

 

I just knew I’d be green with jealousy when I saw the pics. Amazing displays of lamps and stoves and so nice to see some of your faces. Love the halo effect John. Did you raise a glass to Neil when you visited that pub? Silly question, I imagine he would have been mentioned and remembered all weekend long.

 

Another successful gathering, congratulations.
Great photos

 

Sadly, Jean, there have been so many to mourn there weren’t enough glasses to fuel the toasts, but they are remembered for sure and were spoken of with affection often throughout the meet: Neil, Mick (Emm), Trevor (Halliday), Steve (Williams), Bryan (Miller) - who I’ve met and befriended and those overseas who I’ve befriended but not met.

 

Aye a theme of conversation throughout the event.

It was great to see a young cohort of visitors lighting up & fettling with such enthusiasm.

 

Thought I'd better crawl out the woodwork and add these here. I'll introduce myself elsewhere and add the lanterns to the reference gallery when I get a minute.

As stoves and lamps are bottom of the priority list at home I brought along a load of non-runners to work on in between talking, the lanterns included a GSW 'Planet' to provide lighting until I could get the pressure lamps up and running, a Radius No.119 and No.102 with tasty mica:




Home for the long weekend, a Blacks Icelandic plus all the tools and spares required to make some progress:



The hot days were spent overhauling and repairing a total of seven stoves plus the two lanterns, here an Opti No.96 is having some excess solder removed from dodgy leg repairs:



That quiet time of evening before light up, time to remember to eat! The No.102 mica chimney can be seen kicking about as go through everything yet again trying to get it to run correctly. No.119 fired straight up after a vaporiser clean, new jet, needle and leather and knocking out new seals, No.102 was a right git and kept running rich no matter what I tried:




The site starts to come alive, Duncan looks on as John lights up his display, which never fails to include fascinating variety:



As darkness slowly approaches, Archie and I are still testing and repairing:




Meanwhile opposite the youth centre the older wiser gentlemen (who we are supposed to be respectfully looking up to) are taking things less seriously:



We decided to fight back against the lantern dominance and get our stoves rocking. The Radius No.102 up in the background is now finally burning brightly, after going through everything repeatedly with no luck, adding brass gauze to the vaporiser with no luck it still ran rich with or without a mantle. Thanks to @Henry Plews for his input and thoughts, and finally providing the spanner with height gauge which showed the air gap was too small despite appearing to be at the limit of adjustment. What a great feeling to have it burning reliably after a lot of frustration!



Messing about still, with all the successfully overhauled stoves and lamps in action. Apologies if anybody was woken up as a result of punching out seals still at 1am on Sunday morning









Gary (@Wayland) and friends incredible display of hurricane lanterns (very) early morning on the day of the full moon. Really sorry I didn't spent more time chatting wick lamps, next year!



Smeaton's arches by moon and lamplight:




As the field empties, final brew of the weekend before hitting the road on Sunday morning on what is believed to be the oldest Høvik Værk pressure stove yet to be discovered, lit up confidently in the strong breeze with a Høvik Værk lighting torch acquired from Ross (huge thanks) this weekend:




A hugely enjoyable event in excellent company of friends old and new, thank you to Ross for organising it, and everybody who displayed or visited adding to the rich variety on show.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed my day trip to Newark this year, was good to see everyone again and some new faces,
Here are some of the pictures I took wandering around:-

Tim

 

It was good to put a face to your name @Tim Read, glad for making the trip despite the distance.