ORGANISERS are still counting the cost of cancelling the second day of an annual rally which attracts thousands of people.

Heavy overnight rain made the site of the Long Melford Annual Vintage Rally a quagmire and it took all of Sunday to pull hundreds of vehicles off the site next to Long Melford Hall, parts of which were described as resembling a “river”.

Meanwhile, the bad weather from the weekend is still having an impact in Leiston where Leiston Primary School has been forced to close for a second day today because of flooding.

Suffolk County Council said the school would remain shut today for youngsters in years two and above. However, it is open for children in nursery, reception and year one.

Bill Preston, chairman of the Farm Machinery Preservation Society, which organised the weekend rally in West Suffolk said an estimated 4,000 people attended Saturday’s event but rain later in the evening and into the following morning scuppered hopes of the second day continuing with the display area turning into a sodden, muddy morass.

“Parts of it were just like a river and we literally had to pull hundreds of vehicles off the site,” he said.

Tractor owners answered a call for help and came in to help get the machinery off the land and teamed up with others at the rally but it left a mass of mud on the road which had to be cleaned up.

“Saturday was a brilliant day but the big problem began on Sunday. Some of the retail stalls decided to close up and exhibitors called it a day so at 10am we took the decision to cancel the event and we were hauling people out until it got dark,” he added.

It wasn’t until yesterday that the final display, the fayre, left the park.