POLISHED chrome, sweeping wheel arches and badges glinting in the light greeted hundreds of visitors to a classic car show.

On Sunday hundreds of cars and thousands of visitors packed out the showground in Yew Tree Lane, Grange, for the Dales and Lakes Historic Vehicle Day.

Row upon row of cars from American muscle cars of the 1960s to elegant British touring cars of the 30s and 40s.

First established in 1995 when the then clerk of Grange town council decided to revive the town's events calendar, it has been going from strength to strength ever since.

Although the day was threatened with ominous rain clouds hanging over Morecambe Bay, the event remained dry, to the delight of event manager, Geoff Critchley.

He said: "I'm absolutely pleased today. We had just short of 300 registered to come show their classic cars. We might have about 200 here now. It's a headline number, that is a good turn out.

"We encourage people to bring numerous cars. Anything that is about 20 years old counts as a classic car. That is important to us, to embrace new things. At the end of the day younger people will remember 'classic' cars differently from someone else. My personal interest is in the pre-war period."

A naturally keen enthusiast of all things classic car, Mr Critchley brought his own to exhibit on the day. A green, 1938 Riley Kestrel, found as a "basket case" in a Welsh garage, over the past 25 years he has brought it back to stunning life.

"It was a basket case when I got it. It was a sad state when it was bought; it had been in a Welsh garage since the 1960s. It took me five years to get it back on the road, and it's just recently had a second restoration."

For Arthur Baldry, of Grange, it was a similar labour of love to transform his 1948 Alvis TA 14. Found as a wreck in Littleborough, near Rochdale, it took decades to bring back to working order.

He said: "We bought it from a man who kept it in a shed in Littleborough. The body was not in a good condition. We started repairing it and got it to a good condition, but then the man doing it for us went bankrupt."

That blip set Mr Baldry back 12 years; the project got back on track when in jest it was said the car would be the wedding vehicle for Mr Baldry's son.

Calling the bluff, the car was restored and did indeed ferry the newly married Baldry couple on their wedding day in 2006.