Photographing Vintage Stony 2026 – a New Years Day gathering.
Report by David Harbey
5 January 2026
There’s nothing better on New Years Day than to get out and about in some fresh air – a few years back that had been at Brooklands with the MX5 Owners Club – parked adjacent to Concorde one year.
Vintage Stony
More recently we have “stayed local” at Vintage Stony. Organised by a local team of volunteers the event is the winter twin of the summer Classic Stony. It is held in support of Willen Hospice, a highly regarded local charity that many in the Milton Keynes area are familiar with.
A good crowd turns out most years and a wide variety of machinery is present. Local coffee shops are open along with the Willen Hospice bookshop. It’s a nice, gentle start to the year.
A wide variety of cars and motorcycles are parked in Stony Stratford High Street and adjacent car parks. In former years this rather narrow High Street was the A5 north and, a long time before that, Watling Street.
Vintage Stony Highlights
There were familiar vehicles from previous years and first-time spots – including the rather rare Nissan Stagea – porting a “This is not a Volvo” sticker it also had a very nice Skyline R34 front end conversation – I had it as a T5 at first glance (oops) but I was soon put right.
Highlight for me though was the Berlinetta Boxer – reminding me of my teenage Car Magazine reading days – it contrasts somewhat with the more modern 599 that arrived at the same time. Guess I might be getting old …
As ever, you can’t always be sure what you are looking at (rear wheel drive Fiesta, anyone) – but the informal nature of the event means the owners are generally around and happy to talk about their vehicles.
You have to take the background as you find it and there are always people walking in front and around the vehicles – but they can add to the image. There’s also some interesting reflections of local buildings and other vehicles. Herewith my postcard from Vintage Stony.
Take your pick!
Camera Equipment
I decided to travel light and so used the family Nikon D3400 with 18-55mm kit lens. I was shooting in RAW to give maximum flexibility when post processing but that was really restricted to cropping and lifting some shadows.
In this quiet period before the motorsport season gets properly underway, if you are heading out to any of the many gatherings – whether at Caffeine and Machine, Bicester Scramble or elsewhere – it would be good to see and hear about your experience.
You can find more about Vintage Stony here – https://vintagestony.co.uk – and the summer Classic Stony event here – https://classicstony.co.uk
Thanks to David Harbey for the images. You can see more of Davids images by following the links below.
