Regional Fairs

ACCORDING to Hertfordshire organiser Paul Bishop, who works as Oxbridge Fairs, the attendance was up at his fourth Cambridge Glass Fair, held at Chilford Hall Vineyard on September 12.

SOMETHING for nothing is seldom attainable but always desirable and David Fletcher of Unicorn Fairs promises just that at his Lancashire fixture on Sunday October 10.

DERBYSHIRE dealer and now organiser, Nicholas Gent started Prestige Ceramics Fairs last June when he took over the London Ceramics Fair at the Lancaster Gate Thistle Hotel from veteran specialist fairs promoter Fred Hynds. He will be back in the capital next January, but, in the meantime, he launches a new event nearer home with the first Derbyshire Ceramics Fair at the Cavendish Hall, Chatsworth on October 9 and 10.

MORE good news for standholders, this time from Ruth Thurman of Field Dog Fairs.

SOME weeks ago, I reported that preparations were going well for Robert Bailey’s 54th annual Northern Antiques Fair which this year leaves Harrogate and moves to, arguably, the most prestigious venue in the county, Harewood House, near Leeds, stately home of Lord and Lady Harewood.

HERTFORDSHIRE organiser Paul Bishop, who founded Oxbridge Fairs to mount specialist glass events, holds his fourth Cambridge Glass Fair at Chilford Hall Vineyard, Linton, Cambridgeshire this Sunday (September 12) and, with 100 tables, it is fully booked.

INNOVATIVE Oxfordshire dealers The Country Seat may be best known as furniture specialists, but they are increasingly turning their focus towards 19th and 20th century design.

ARGUABLY the most popular of the five events a year held by Towy Antiques Fairs at the United Counties Showground, Carmarthen is the September staging. The approaching event on the weekend of September 11 and 12 has been fully booked with its full complement of 180 exhibitors since early in the year.

AFTER four years of organising fairs at the Bournemouth Pavilion, the Hampshire-based organisers Valerie and Ken Sleeney, believe the wealthy town and hinterland has more to offer.

CONGRATULATIONS to Middlesex-based organiser Sue Cruttenden who this month celebrates 25 years of her fortnightly Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park Race Course, Sunbury-on-Thames.

HOME Counties organisers Jill Napper and Joy O’Meara, who operate as Jay Fairs, have just acquired the long-established Benson Antiques & Collectors Fair, held in the Parish Hall at Benson, Oxfordshire. They will run the fair from September 19 and on the third Sunday of each month thereafter. It will be AA signposted.

SIX masked raiders broke into the South Cotswolds Antiques Fair at Westonbirt School, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire around 3am on the morning of Sunday August 15 and escaped with an estimated £400,000 worth of jewellery.

HAVING reported on trade expansion, it is equally encouraging to see seasoned organisers such as Robert Bailey and Caroline Penman in a similarly upbeat mood.

FAIRS organiser Jackie Raleigh of Newbury, Berkshire has sold her company Silhouette Fairs to Andy and Sheila Briggs of Oxfordshire-based Fat Cat Fairs.

BOTH visitors and exhibitors were delighted with the Kent Pavilion, the new facility unveiled to antiques buyers at the Detling Antiques & Collectors Fair on July 24 and 25.

LINCOLNSHIRE organiser Ruth Thurman, who operates as Field Dog Fairs, holds her tenth annual antiques and collectors fair at Grimsthorpe Castle, near Bourne from July 30 to August 1.

ESSEX organiser Robert Bailey has pulled off a coup by clinching Harewood House, near Leeds in North Yorkshire, as the venue for his 54th Northern Antiques Fair, which will be held from September 22 to 26.

NORFOLK organiser (and dealer) Liz Allport-Lomax holds her second Southwold Summer Antiques Fair at St Felix School in the picturesque small Suffolk coastal town from July 23 to 25.

STAYING with idyllic summer settings, next month Sussex organiser Ron Beech hosts his one fair of the year, the annual Lindfield Antiques Fair, which has been running at the King Edward Hall in the West Sussex village near Haywards Heath for 37 years.

BERKSHIRE-based Dinah Ives, who operates as Magna Carta Country Fayres, has a new venue from Sunday October 10 – St. Leonard’s Mansion at Legoland, near Windsor.