Showmen's Guild: Norwich and Eastern Counties Section
Historically the Norwich and Eastern Counties Section of the Guild has the longest season of all. The traditional start to the season is King's Lynn Mart, opening on St Valentines day. By midsummer the showmen and their families will have travelled on runs of fairs that lead them to Cambridge. On into the back end and the last fair of the year is Norwich Christmas fair that does not in fact open until Boxing day. These three major fairs are those most identified with the section. However behind them lies a wealth of historical fairs, and a few more modern events that serve, as with all sections, to fill the year.
For those who start at King's Lynn it is the commencement of the Mart run that takes in Wisbech, Peterborough and for some the trek up the Great North Road to Stamford and Grantham. For others the season starts a week before Easter. Several fairs run throughout the section with everyone getting things running and sorted after the winter lay-off in preparation for the holiday. Some of the bigger Easter fairs can be found at Norwich, Bedford, Harpenden and Northampton.
From April through to June many of the fairs are traditional runs built up over the years by families such as the Grays, Harris', Thurstons, Mannings, Scarrots, Whyatts, Stocks and Smiths. There are also presentations by some less well known showmen - Keith Emmett to the west, Freddy Dean, who traverses the whole area during the season playing many of the smaller villages, and indeed several of the younger generation who have branched out and take any opportunity to run new events.
The month of June sees the start of the various Air Shows for which several of the East Anglian Air Bases have become famous since the last war. However, with the closure of the Air bases due to the peace dividend, the events have stopped and the showmen have fallen back on their traditional grounds. June of course sees the biggest fair of the year for the section at Cambridge, after which the showmen disperse to their traditional grounds.
August is the traditional holiday month and for those not at the coast it can be quiet. Fairs such as the Thurston presentation at Hitchin lose machines in the second week for the Southend Carnival, whilst Henry Harris takes his Waltzer to the coast for six or eight weeks. Traditionally the end of the Bank Holiday fairs sees the start of the Back End run for the western end of the section. Running from mid-September through to mid-October it starts with Harpenden Statute, Clifton, Kimbolton Statute which is still on the street, Stevenage Charter which is also still held in the streets of the Old Town, and Dunstable Statute. Other Statute and Mop fairs in the section include Buckingham First Mop, Peterborough Bridge Fair and Shefford Statute.
The bonfires in November provide the showmen with an opportunity to present their machines at almost every major town, with perhaps the largest of these at Milton Keynes where Keith Emmett presents some twenty rides from a core of Eastern Counties showmen, supplemented by rides from all over the country. By the end of November the season is drawing to a close but few showmen will miss an opportunity to open and many can be found in the town centres with the switching on of the Christmas lights. A few will be preparing to pull onto the historic Norwich Castle site for the last Fair of the year which hopefully provides a Christmas bonus for all those involved. So as the year closes there are many who look forward to a few well earned weeks of rest, maintaining, modifying, redecorating, and building new rides, ready to go on the road for another year.
[Jim Bassett, November 1994].
|
|
