TEWKESBURY FAIR SOCIETY

TEWKESBURY FAIR SOCIETY
NEWSLETTER No. 15
2002

CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

Dear Member,
Welcome to newsletter no.15. Since our last issue your committee have been busy promoting the Society at Events & Rallies with either the sales and publicity stand or exhibiting models, sometimes both. Our first event was the Model Steam Road Vehicle Society Rally, at Tewkesbury Rugby Club; this rally is now well established at the vineyards and goes from strength to strength every year. We were present as usual at the Welland Rally, also at the Miserden Rally now relocated to Kemble airfield.

At the Hospital Fete we presented our can-can throwing game for the first time, which proved to be very popular with adults and children alike. This was housed in our new stand, kindly donated to the society by Mr. Charles Smith one of our showmen members.

Our model show at Holy Trinity Church hall prior to the Mop again proved to be very popular and we were also blessed with a dry day. Our grateful thanks goes to Mrs. Margaret Deville and family for drawing in the customers with her hand turned organ at the main entrance. The show was kindly opened for us by the then Town Mayor Councillor B. Calway.

Our new stand attended its first Mop a few days later and we were also able to display our new name boards for the first time. I do hope you were able to see them. Thanks go to all members who made time to come and see us at the stand for a chat and to renew memberships.

The Society was also able to secure the services of our friends with the hand turned organs once again to aid collections for Tewkesbury Hospital League of Friends. At Mop 2001 we presented the Burrell Showman's Engine "Masterpiece". The first night she was located in the Spring Gardens car-park by the swimming pool and on Fair day she stood at the top of Oldbury Road, our thanks go to the Danter family for allowing us to site the engine in Spring Gardens.

This engine spent all of her working life in showland in the ownership of John Cole & Sons of Staple Hill, Bristol and carries a Gloucestershire registration plate. This year the Mop was blessed with much better weather than previous years and we were joined at pull on day at the car park by some of our good friends from Stamford.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Does anyone remember the model fairground that was once located in the basement of the Town Hall circa early 1960's? Well in case you are not aware these models are now housed at the Museum in Barton Street.

Shortly after Christmas the committee was approached by the museum curator Mr. Chris Kirby as to whether we could help him in the cleaning and restoration of these models. This we gladly agreed to, but this is where your help comes in. We also need to trace the history of these models, where they came from and how they were obtained etc. During our investigation there seems to be some discrepancy in the stories and so to present than to the public with their history we need to clear up these anomalies.

So if anyone has any information about the models however trivial you might think please get in touch with us via our secretary Mr. Ian Bartlett on 07974 185270 (e-mail IANBARTLETT1@compuserve.com) or call into the museum. Also please does anyone have a photo of the models at the town hall?

Some upcoming dates for your diary.

* 17TH. JULY - ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - ELIZABETH WYATT HOUSE. BARTON STREET.
* 24TH. AUGUST - HOSPITAL FETE.
* 5TH. OCTOBER - MODEL SHOW - HOLY TRINITY CHURCH HALL, OLDBURY ROAD.

Our talk and slide shows are still being asked for and since our last issue we have presented the show at Dymock for the Welland Rally people and also at Gloucester for the M.S.R.V.S. club members.

Just to wet the appetite the society are hoping to present Mr. D. Prout's Burrell Showman's engine "Nancy" ex Brewers at this years Mop. Unfortunately this will probably be the last time for a few years that we shall be able to present an engine due to dwindling finds, unless we can get some substantial sponsorship towards cost in the future. My thanks go to the hard working committee and to you all for your support of the Society.
Dave Fellows Chairman T.F.S.

Midlands Outing

Sunday September 30th saw a group of Committee members visiting Funfairs in the Midlands. After an early start we arrived in Nottingham shortly after 8am to observe the pull-on and build up of rides for the annual "Goose Fair" which was held from October 3rd. -6th. Along with Newcastle and Hull this is one of the three largest fairs to be held in the county boasting approximately 60 large rides.

Normally the large ride loads start to arrive in Nottingham early on Sunday morning but in 2001 for the first time permission was given for loads to arrive from Friday onwards. When we arrived there were loads parked up which had arrived on the Friday & Saturday, some rides being built up and others arriving throughout the day from all parts of the country. Most big name ride operators were present including Bob Wilson's Funfairs, James Mellor's, Anthony Harris (Pat Collins), Armstrong's, and Percival's and from Scotland Raymond Codona and M & D Taylor. Some rides were familiar to us having attended local fairs whilst others were those which we had only read or heard about and were seeing for the first time. Amongst the star attractions were Bob Wilson's Funfair's new "Booster" aerial ride (a modern day Dive Bomber) which arrived from Bridgwater having made it's debut a fortnight earlier in Thame, a giant Big Wheel which had arrived from Holland to attend a few British fairs and a Log Flume & Roller Coaster from Scotland. Although the weather was not too kind, with plenty of showers, it was an ideal time to take plenty of photos of the ride loads, build up and already built rides.

After a quick lunch we made the short journey to Burton-On-Trent town centre where the fair rides pull-on at 2pm. Rides present included those from Anthony Harris (Pat Collins), Smiths, M & D Taylor and one of Tewkesbury Mop's favourites Henry Stanworth's Waltzer.

Next stop was Kings Norton, a suburb on the south west of Birmingham. Their Mop fair takes place on the first Monday in October around the village green. When we arrived the rides were all built up ready for business the next day including a Waltzer, Dodgems, Orbiter, Twist, Miami, Skymaster, Round Up and plenty of juvenile rides and stalls.

Final stop of the day was at Alcester in Warwickshire where their Mop fair takes place on the first Monday & Tuesday of October. The rides here pull-on at 4pm and here we saw Danter's Orbiter and Smith's Round Up (both long time Tewkesbury favourites) along with Morris's Trabant, Danter's Jumper and a good selection of rides for the youngsters and plenty of stalls and sidestuff.

Stamford Visit

Our first outing of this year was to Stamford, Lincs. On 16th. March where Stamford Fair Society hold a model show during their Mid Lent-Fair held in the streets of the town, And as usual we where made very welcome by their committee, and friend's the model show was well attended and there were some very good models to see. We ourselves displayed John Jennings 1/50th.scale fairground transport, Roger Webb's 1/72nd. Fairground, Dave Kennison's 1/24th scale Cakewalk, Phil South with his collection of Fairground transport and the Society photo boards. The photos displayed were much-appreciated showing Tewkesbury mops in the 1950's and 1960's. After the model show we took time to look around the fair where a large number of big rides were present. Some of which were Micheal Wallis Jnr. (Hi-Speed Booster), Micheal Holland (Twister), William Percival (Waltzer), Graham Sedgewick (Super spin), Dorinda Holland (Fold-up Dodgem), Michiel Phillips (Airwolf-Superstar). Also Lawrence Bishton's Galloper's and Cakewalk stood side by side in one street. This caused much speculation among the showmen and locals as to when two big rides, both featuring a fairground organ, had stood next to each other at a Mid-Lent Fair. From this visit we received an invitation to Long Eaton model show in November to put on our slide show on the mop.

Just to show that the committee is involved in other projects

(From a newsletter sent to us from Cheltenham Great Western Modellers Group.)
Cheltenham Great Western Modellers Group has been organising model railway exhibitions since 1987. Although the group split up several years ago I decided to carry on with the shows still using the groups name but to give all the profit to charity. This is how C.L.I.C. (Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood) became involved. They provide catering for the exhibitors and visitors and then receive all the profit that is made. So far a total of £5,400 has been donated from eight exhibitions. Two committee members from Tewkesbury Fair Society, Roger Webb and Phil South are regularly on hand to give much needed help during the weekend of the show. Roger has exhibited his railway layout and fairground and Phil South brought along his collection of model road vehicles. Several layouts that have featured in the model railway press have appeared at the Cheltenham exhibition and together with other good quality layouts have hopefully ensured that a high standard is maintained. There are two shows a year one in April and the other in October. So far the attendance figures have been good despite the fact that the dates often clash with televised major sporting events. Favourable comments from visitors seem to confirm that they are more then happy with what they have seen and therefore it is intended to carry on with the shows for as long as possible.
Mike Walker (Secretary Cheltenham Great Western Modeller Group)

Footnote

We have had a phone call from Kevin Scrivens who has recently purchased a set of Walker Gallopers asking for information about them. They have had a number of owners including Frank Wilson, James Edwards, and James Butterworth. Members may well have seen them when they came to some of the steam rallies held on Brekingstone Meadow when in the ownership of Nelson Smith. After restoration they are going to be at Iron Bridge Gorge Museum in August.

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