COURTESY OF OAKLEIGH FAIRS
Serendipity might be the word to sum up the experience of visiting an arts and crafts or antiques fair anywhere in the British Isles in the summertime. When you visit a fair—or “fayre” for that proper, old-world experience—there is indeed a good chance of coming upon something pleasurable by accident.
The objects you do find, in the smallest or the greatest fair, are handcrafted products, often sold by the maker in a picturesque location; items that more than anything else you might purchase to reflect the locale you are visiting.
A growing complaint about Main Street UK is the creeping blandness of town centers as more and more stores turn into branches of nationwide chains. This explains the growing attraction, for locals and visitors alike, of the vast number of arts, crafts and antiques fairs held in the summer months every year.
The visitor on the hunt for such events is only spoiled for choice. From the smallest village summer fete to Europe’s largest and best-known antiques fair, there is a cornucopia of choice for every pocket the length and breadth of the country.
Predictably, as interest in these fairs has grown, professional companies have begun to organize events—and often in the most delightful and historic locations.
Troon is one such place. Situated on the west Scottish coast, around eight miles north of Ayr, the monthly Ayrshire Arts and Crafts fairs are a must for those looking for items with a distinctly Scottish quality.
“We insist that stall holders only sell high-end handmade craft items they have made. We definitely will not have twee tea cozies on sale,” says organizer Alex Hughes. Many sellers are local Ayrshire artists.
“Our insistence on only allowing handmade items means that we recently turned down an application from a woman who, though she designed her own bags, told us they were manufactured in China,” Hughes said.
The vetting of venders to uphold Hughes’ ambition to secure only the best quality stalls has given the fair a “boutique quality” that attracts regular stall holders from as far away as the north of England. This year, the fairs will be held on Saturdays—July 12, August 9, September 13 and October 4—in the Troon Concert and Walker Halls, adjacent to the Troon South Beach Esplanade, with panoramic views across the Firth of Clyde to the Isle of Arran.
Getting to the fair is easy. The facility is near the Troon town center and is well-served by public transport, on the main Glasgow/Ayr rail line and only 10 minutes’ drive from Prestwick International Airport.
POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE
Malvern’s monthly Malvern Antiques Fairs and Flea Fairs present the intrepid antiques hunter with some 200 stalls containing objects “across the board,” says joint-owner Helen Martin.
Held in one of England’s prime beauty spots, the monthly fair attracts a mix of professional and amateur stall holders who offer a range of artifacts, including porcelain, jewelry and glass from the 18th century to the end of the 20th. Popular stalls are provided by print dealers and furniture dealers.
Martin says the fairs, to be held at the Severn Hall on Sundays August 10, September 7 and October 19, benefit from being kept small and intimate. “There are not an awful lot of stall holders which means we are very much a happy family of traders,” she says.
While Malvern is a relatively modest event, the same cannot be said of the Newark Antiques Fair. It is simply Europe’s largest antiques event, and takes place every other month throughout the year. Stall holders and buyers from around the world take part in this internationally renowned trading event.
With around 4,000 stalls, the 84-acre fair holds everything you could imagine—from furniture, rugs, paintings and textiles to sports memorabilia, toys, grandfather clocks and antique maps.
“We are the largest antiques fair in Europe,” says Kate Boughton, marketing executive for fair organizer dmg Antiques Fairs. “The Le Mans fair in France is the only other large antiques event in Europe that can be compared with Newark. The Peterborough antiques fair is similar in size to Newark, but it is only held twice a year whereas Newark is held six times a year.”
Both professional and amateur dealers have stalls at the fair, and U.S. antique dealers have been beating a path to Newark for the two-decade life of the event.
Visitors from across the Atlantic who want to buy antique items at the show needn’t worry about how they can take that Louis XVI table or the vintage motor car home through JFK airport. “We have impendent shipping companies at the fair that ship larger items to the buyer’s home,” Boughton says.
Organizers are strict about what is sold: Only antiques are allowed on stalls, and show organizers undertake checks to make sure that items are truly antique. The show is also a magnet for media, and famous faces often visit. For the popular British television program Bargain Hunt, amateur antique enthusiasts visit Newark to seek out gems to sell at a profit in a televised antique auction.
COURTESY OF B2B EVENTS
COURTESY OF OAKLEIGH FAIRS
COURTESY OF OAKLEIGH FAIRS
This year, the fair is being held Thursdays and Fridays, August 7 and 8 and October 9 and 10. Access by road is convenient, as the Newark and Nottinghamshire Showground is adjacent to the A1, only two hours from London. By rail, trains serve Newark North-gate station, only 10 minutes from the fair, whence a courtesy coach runs to the ground. Travel by train from London is 90 minutes.
WHITE ROSE OF YORK
Farther north, Yorkshire Craft Fairs holds about 30 fairs in some of North Yorkshire’s most pleasing locations, including world-famous York Minster, during the months of July and October.
While the York fair is the most popular, organizer Donald Olley suggests visitors to the UK would be well advised to visit other locations to discover a more authentic, local color.
“I would suggest a visit to Duncombe Park,” Olley enthuses. “It is a stately home, built in 1713, and still lived in by the family of Lord and Lady Feversham. All the stalls are located in the house, which is set in extensive parkland.”
The majority of items on sale are made by local craftspeople, though Olley does permit about a quarter of stalls to sell bought-in products.
“We guarantee that the bought-in goods are of an equal quality. These stalls do add variety to our fairs. One stall we currently have is a lady who brings pottery from China, and another stall holder who sells Kenyan handicrafts,” he says.
Cambridge-based Oakleigh Fairs is a fair organizer with a sophisticated ambition to keep it simple. It does indeed pitch its wares in locations off the beaten track, many of which will repay a visit across the south of England.
“We allow bought-in products to be sold,” says co-owner Charlie Owen. “This doesn’t necessarily dilute the craftsman element of the shows as the products may be handmade, simply by someone other than the stall holder. We have an international flavor of stall holders. Some sell fair-trade goods, and the large number of UK people married to foreign spouses means that many stalls offer foreign products through family connections.”
One show Owen suggests especially for visitors is the fair planned for the August Bank Holiday weekend of August 23-25 at Highclere Castle, Newbury, within easy reach of London.
“I believe the venue is as important as the stall holders in the success of the fair. A heavenly location is Highclere Castle, where we are offering a combined fair and house ticket that is very worthwhile. The fair coincides with the exhibition of Egyptian artifacts associated with the O2 Tutankhamun exhibition in London,” says Owen. (The “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibition is on display in London’s O2 Dome through August.)
From the Solent to Sunderland, craft and antique events are only the beginning. Traveling anywhere during the warm months you might run across parish fairs, village fetes and car boot sales that shake treasures out of attics and showcase homemade jams, woodwork or even a tartan tea cozy. It’s only serendipity.
COURTESY OF B2B EVENTS
COURTESY OF B2B EVENTS