In mid-March, the Easter weather forecast in assorted news media ranged from the “coldest Easter in history” to “bone chilling Britain.”
However, the Met Office informs us that the first holiday of the year often coincides with some “springlike weather” and forecasts much milder days “with temperatures expected to reach highs of 9C in parts of the country”.
Here are a few fairs to whet the appetite over Easter.
Lincolnshire show
Two sunny-looking customers pictured with their purchases at a recent Arthur Swallow antiques and home fair. The next is on April 2-3.
Arthur Swallow Fairs is anticipating more than 1000 exhibitors at its Easter Antiques and Home Show at the Lincolnshire Showground on Monday and Tuesday, April 2-3. The organiser is running a ticket offer on the website for £15 for the Monday, only if pre-booked.
Liam Woodgates, director of the Hopkinson Vintage and Antique Centre in Nottingham, which has 100 dealers spread out over four floors of the building, is a regular at Arthur Swallow events. He will be bringing to this fair “a wide variety of items priced from £1 to £1000 including vintage aircraft seats and parts, one-arm bandits, laboratory stools, costume jewellery and loads more”.
Walbottle builds support
Daffodils are one of the earliest flowers to bloom in the spring. These blooms were pictured on a stand at one of Colin Caygill Events’ antiques and vintage fairs held at 11 venues across north-east England, with two events running over the Easter holidays.
Colin Caygill has run antiques and vintage fairs all over the north of England since 1981 and now holds events in Durham, Cumbria, Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and north Yorkshire.
The venues vary in size and style from the Gateshead Stadium to the Rheged Centre, in Cumbria, the UK’s largest grass covered building, named after the ancient kingdom of the Dark Ages, according to the Visit Cumbria tourist office.
Caygill’s latest antiques and vintage fair is in the village of Walbottle, a western suburb of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
The village name, recorded in 1176 as Walbotl, is derived from the Old English botl (building) on Hadrian’s Wall, an hour away.
Caygill said that the first fair at the Walbottle Campus in February “was greeted extremely well by exhibitors and visitors and we return there again on Sunday June 3”.
His fairs over Easter are at the Willowburn Leisure Centre in the Northumberland town of Alnwick on Friday, March 30, and on Monday, April 2, at New College, Durham. The latter is rescheduled from the March event which was cancelled due to snow and the college’s closure.
Hoping for sunshine
The organisers of the popular Malvern Flea are hoping for a day as fine as this for the next event at the Three Counties Showground, with its backdrop of the Malvern Hills, on Monday, April 2.
Helen and Alan Yourston of B2B Events had to cancel their antiques and collectors’ fair in March due to very severe weather at the Three Counties showground, so they are keeping everything crossed for good weather over Easter at their Malvern Flea on Monday, April 2.
Good weather is needed for visitor numbers as the organisers like to aim for 500 outside pitches; last year there were 400. Both halls at the showground are fully booked at 300 stands. The Malvern Flea is B2B’s best-performing event in its portfolio, with the busiest fleas being the ones held on the Monday bank holidays, starting with Easter Monday and finishing with the August date.
They attract 8000-9000 visitors, whereas the usual Sunday flea dates bring in an average visitor attendance of 4000-5000.
Cornish classic
This picture shows a 2017 fair in Wadebridge, north Cornwall. The next one is on March 30-31.
For the past decade, Alex Robins of Antique Fairs Cornwall has run her biannual two-day antiques, vintage and decorative fairs at the Royal Cornwall Showground in Wadebridge, north Cornwall.
First event up this year takes place over the Easter holiday on Friday and Saturday, March 30-31.
With 250 estimated stands plus outside pitches, this is the largest fair in the county and comes with the added attractions of a classic car auction and a classic car rally.
BOAS Militaria of Lower Earley (a Reading suburb) will be bringing a silver freedom casket, priced at £8000, with lion’s head handles, open and scrolled feet and with its original key.
Assayed in Sheffield in 1936, the casket has the maker’s mark S.H & Co, for the Birmingham maker Sydney Hall & Co.
It measures about 11½ x 6½ x 7½in (29 x 16.5 x 19cm) and weighs about 92oz.
Often highly decorative, a freedom casket was used to present a person with a sealed freedom scroll, conferring the freedom of a town or city on them.
On the hoof
A row of apothecary bottles at last August’s three-day vintage and antiques fair held in the Kent village of Penshurst village hall. The Easter fair runs from March 31-April 2.
Decoratives dealer Tara Franklin of Hoof Brocante, near Rye in East Sussex, also organises the vintage and antiques fairs in Penshurst held over three days of the annual bank holidays.
At Easter this will run from Saturday to Monday, March 31-April 2 in the village hall of the much-visited Kent village near Tonbridge, famous for its antiques shops.
Franklin said: “New names coming are Lovely Hudson from Lewes, Little White Cat Antiques from Bedfordshire, Isseapink from Bexhill, and Tatty Chateaux and Caroline Ramm Interiors, both from Church Hill Antiques in Lewes, as well as all the usual standholders.
“Some really beautiful French antiques and brocante will be at Penshurst this time. Lisa Giles, who is Lovely Hudson, also makes really lovely cushions from antique textiles.”
Contact Tara Franklin on 07507 876637.
