Carter's Steam Fair
If you've never visited Carter's Royal Berkshire Steam Fair, you've missed a treat and you should get yourself, friends and family down to Priory Park in July of each year to enjoy a wonderful experience - beautifully restored steam driven fairground rides, including gallopers, steam yachts, swing boats, dodgems and dive bombers, all accompanied by decorated period lorries and caravans. Then there are the colours, the vivid reds, blues, greens and the shining golds - and the sounds of the organ, the bells, the whistles and the steam engines themselves mixing with the 50's rock and roll music of the dodgems.
Fairgrounds have been with us a long time. Animals, theatrical displays and exhibitions began appearing at traditional fairs in the early nineteenth century, but it wasn't until the 1860s that we find documentary evidence of a steam-driven merry-go-round. A reporter from the Halifax Courier in 1863 described "a roundabout of huge proportions, driven by a steam engine which whirled around with such impetuosity, that the wonder is the daring riders are not shot off like cannon-ball and driven half into the middle of next month". One local resident was worried by the risk of explosion, claiming that the state of pressure at which it was worked endangered the lives of scores of children. Fortunately, he was ignored.
We have to thank John Carter for this fair. Back in the 1970s and 80s, he promoted steam events. Then in 1976 he bought a set of gallopers - fairground horses to you and me - as an addition to the show. That first fairground ride cost a lot of time and money to restore, and those horses are now over 110 years old. For the technically minded, the ride was built by Tidmans of Norwich in 1895, complete with a Tidman Duplex Centre Engine called 'Anna', a 46-Key Gavioli Organ from 1900, original horses carved by Andersons of Bristol around 1910 and an ornate paybox from a Gondola Switchback.
And from then it just grew. The Steam Fair opened in 1977, the chair-o-planes ride and steam yachts were added in the 1980s and the rock n' roll dodgems and octupus ride in the 1990s. The year 2005 saw the launch of the splendid Victory Dive Bomber, originally built in 1946 and extensively restored over 2001-03 and graced with paintings of Spitfires.
John Carter died in 2000 but luckily for us it is a family business, and so it has carried on. John Carter's wife Anna is responsible for much of the painted restoration of the rides and the children started young, working on the organ then graduating to driving the engines. Now the Fair travels all summer throughout the Thames Valley area from its base in Maidenhead.
So, do visit even if it is just to look and admire the rides, the caravans, the lorries and the steam engines. If you don't fancy spinning around the sky in a 1961 Octupus or sailing away in a 1921 Steam Yacht, you could always test your strength on the rarely seen Striker (there's a full size 'Mighty Striker' and the half size 'Son of Striker' for the children).
The fair normally visits Priory Park during the same weekend on which the Hornsey Carnival is paraded along the adjacent Priory Road (first Saturday in July). Sometimes it coincides with other events - Carter's Steam Fair at Priory Park was the location for BBC1's Antique Road Show in 2006. On the Saturday, in addition to the usual fair activities, there is an impressive fireworks display to close the day. If you can't visit the fair or would like to know more about Carter's, have a look at their website:
Carter's steam fair: http://www.carterssteamfair.co.uk/carters_steam_fair_001.htm
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Last updated 08.07.09 by RCS