The story so far..... the view
from 2022
The 'new era' of
Winsham Street Fairs was started in1985, with its roots in a long
tradition in Winsham of carnivals and similar celebrations. In 1262, the
Bishop of Bath & Wells granted the village of Winsham a charter to hold
an annual street fair on 29th June, the feast of St. Peter & Paul. Unfortunately,
no records have been found giving any details of
Street Fairs before 1985, although they flourished
during pre-industrial revolution times, and probably
well
into the 19th Century.
Initially, photographs of the 1985 event
commemorating the Monmouth Rebellion were very scarce. Over a ten
year period, some did emerge, and notably, in 2012, Jim
Loaring provided a considerable collection of additional pictures of
Street Fairs over the years leading up to the Millennium, mostly taken
by his parents, Arthur and Roma Loaring. Ann Bevis also contributed some
pictures from her father's collection in 2018. These have enhanced
considerably the collection of pictures of the earlier Street Fairs
displayed in this gallery. In recent years, with the advent of digital
photography, the volume and quality of pictures has improved, although
at present we have no pictures of the 2004 event, something the web
museum would like to remedy. We appeal to all visitors to this site to
help remedy this by checking their own collection of pictures and
allowing us to reproduce them for everyone's enjoyment.
In addition to photographs, the
Web Museum
has obtained details of the organisation that went
into the 1985 Street Fair, the first to be held since in Winsham since
the seventeenth century. To see these very interesting documents
CLICK HERE.
They give an insight into the heavy task that falls to the
Winsham Street Fair Committee in organising each event. As soon as one
Street Fair ends, planning and fund raising for the next begins.
Reproductions of the printed programmes also are
displayed when available, together with photographs and programmes of
the drama events that have also been part of some of the Street Fairs ,
together with some of the fund raising events that have been held. Just
Click on the links when you see them.
Street Fairs are usually held on the last
Saturday of June, in line with the original Charter. The success of each
event is inevitably dependant on the weather, although even during the
worst rainfall, the crowds that come from a wide surrounding area,
invariably enjoy themselves.
In 2013 a new Street Fair Committee was
formed, replacing the committee, which was, for
many years led by Colin and Margaret
Slade . The problem facing the new committee was how to inject
new ideas, without changing the very popular character of the event.
Although times were changing, entertainment events aside, the backbone of the
Street Fair remained the many small 'charity' stalls that took the opportunity
to raise money for one good cause or another. They provided colour and
entertainment, with participation sometimes being rewarded by a small
prize. Over the years they had proved their popularity; but the
stalwarts who used to enjoy running such stands were getting fewer. The Street Fair
was finding it more difficult to
attract the number of stands to make a good show.
On the positive side, the
Street Fair continued to attract many small businesses -craft stalls-weavers, jewellery, walking stick makers-all sorts of
food, drink
and Ice-cream vendors and so-on.
The passing years also made clear that more
volunteers were needed to mount such a relatively large event. Younger
people were needed to take on the challenge.
When the new committee
was formed. Roger Beer, who had been involved in the Street Fair for
many years, became chairman of the committee, and gathered around him
Steve Weller as vice-chairman, and recruited some
younger people
such as Harriet Dougherty as Secretary, and
Dominic Douglass as Treasurer to form the basis of the new group. Sue
Ward-Rice also joined to help with administration and fund raising.
The 2014 event would be the
first Street Fair to be organised by the new group.
The Winsham Street Fairs that
followed were all successful until the fateful year of
2020,when the Corona virus pandemic struck, resulting in
many deaths and hospitalisations in the UK, especially
among older people. An account of how life in Winsham
changed during this period can be found by
clicking HERE, but one result was the cancellation
of the 2020 event , with the intention of holding it in
the following year, only to be cancelled again as the
pandemic continued. It was not until 2022 that it was
considered relatively safe to hold the event. Government
restrictions had been lifted , and although the virus
continued to infect people in high numbers, due to high
levels of vaccination which generally reduced its
severity, it was decided to reinstate the event.
During the 'gap' period the
Street Fair Management Committee experienced many
changes, due to retirement and moves from the parish.
However, the parish also gained new residents, so
replacement members were found to take on the
considerable effort required to stage such an event. The
2022 event took place under the leadership of
Alison and John Llewellyn.
Below is an index that will take
you to pictures and information on all but one of the
Street Fairs held since 1985.
JSS-July 2022
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