The Fairground Association of Great Britain

“Renewing membership – if you are renewing by cheque and have a yellow renewal form, can you fill out and send to 11 Orchard Coombe, Whitchurch Hill, Reading RG8 7QL and not the address on the form. Or you can renew online by going to https://www.fagb.co.uk/ and pressing ‘Membership’ where you can pay using Debit/Credit card or by Paypal.”

Fairground Association of Great Britain UK leading club for fairground enthusiasts Mercury

The Fairground Mercury

The September edition of The Fairground Mercury, the quarterly magazine of the Fairground
Association of Great Britain, has been posted to all members of the FAGB. In this 40-page, full-colour
issue Roger Mills and Stephen Smith write about ride manufacturers Land Wheels and Rytecraft; Ian Trowell looks at the influence of the rave music scene on fairground art; Bernard Haste describes how he rebuilt a model Scenic Railway – and Mike Willis logs all the latest machine change. Plus lots
more!
The Fairground Mercury is sent free each quarter to all members of the FAGB. If you would like to obtain this edition and the next three issues please send a subscription fee of £15 (over 65s and
under 14s, £12) to: The FAGB Membership Secretary, c/o 11 Orchard Coombe, Whitchurch Hill, Reading RG8 7QL.

Payment should be made out to The Fairground Association of Great Britain and please enclose a small SAE for the despatch of your membership card. Should you be overseas
please add a supplement of £5 to the subscription as a contribution to air mail costs.

Payment can be made online by PayPal – see Membership on this site.
All new members will be sent a free copy of the FAGB’s booklet produced to mark the 900 th anniversary of Hereford May Fair –
Britain’s oldest fair.

Did you get a renewal notice in your last “Fairground Mercury”? If so #, renew this week or you may miss our September issue which is going to press soon”

It is our Secretary David Wragg's birthday today. Hope you can join us and wish him a great cake and candles day today. :)

With apologies for a few delays in June, we have new stock! All o/s membership cards have now been dispatched and, going forward, are being sent every week.

Don't forget back issues of The Fairground Mercury can be purchased by visiting our store

FAGB Shopfront The Fairground Association of Great Britain Shop

Apologies to anyone who is expecting and has not received their membership card. We are just awaiting new supplies of cards and you should receive your card shortly.

Important Notice

As members will be aware our long-serving membership secretary, Lynn Calladine, has retired this post. As a temporary measure our honorary treasurer, Simon Reed, will be dealing with subscription
renewals until such time as a new membership secretary is in post.

In the meanwhile, any queries re non-receipt of the latest Mercury should be addressed to the chairman, Graham Downie, whose contact details can be found on page 2 of the previous magazine.
Please quote your membership number if you contact him.

The June edition of The Fairground Mercury, the quarterly journal of the Fairground Association of
Great Britain, has been posted to all members. In this 40-page, full-colour issue the 30 th anniversary
of the National Fairground & Circus Archive is celebrated with a selection of images drawn from its
collections; Roger Mills muses on the fairground scene of the 21 st century’s first decade; David
Palmer reveals more about his fairground ancestors and Vicky Postlethwaite marks a notable double
anniversary. Plus all the latest machine changes, notes for model-makers and lots more!
The Fairground Mercury is sent free each quarter to all members of the FAGB. If you would like to
obtain this edition and the next three issues please send a subscription of £15 (over 65s and under
16s, £12) to: Simon Reed, Hon Treasurer, FAGB, c/o 11 Orchard Coombe, Whitchurch Hill, Reading
RG8 7QL. Payment should be made to The Fairground Association of Great Britain and please
enclosed a small SAE for the despatch of your membership card. Should you be overseas please add
a supplement of £5 to the subscription as a contribution to air mail costs. Payment can be made by
PayPal – please see elsewhere on this site.
All new members will also be sent a free copy of the FAGB’s booklet produced to mark the 900 th
anniversary of Hereford May Fair, Britain’s oldest fair.
Please note: Simon Reed is abroad for most of June and will deal with all applications for
membership on his return.

The latest edition of The Fairground Mercury will be posted out to members next week.

Subscribers to the World's Fair can read our member David Springthorpe's detailed report of the show at Loughborough organised for us by Dave Wilson & Dave Homer.

High standards at Loughborough Fair Model Show The fairground in miniature had plenty to interest visitors at the model show on the Saturday of Loughborough Fair.

The Ronnie Taylor Annual Award

At this year FAGB AGM, 'The Ronnie Taylor Annual Award' that is awarded for
Outstanding Showmanship' was awarded to Anthony Harris Jnr. It was awarded
for the consistently high level of presentation of his Waltzer (one of the
last built by Maxwell's). The bar was set, of course, by his father, who has
always maintained his equipment in first-class condition.

Photo (C) Dave Springthorpe - Shows Anthony Harris Jnr collecting the award
from Graham Downie (FAGB Chair) and Anthony Harris Snr (FAGB President).

Change of Address?

Dear member, If you have moved, recently and want to continue to receive your Fairground Mercury, please let us know by filling in the form here

Contact Us - FAGB Shopfront The Fairground Association of Great Britain Shop

The trophy winners from our Kirkcaldy Funfair Model Show are found on this post. Well done to Niall & his team on putting another first-class show on.

Congratulations to our fairground trophy winners of 2024

Best ride Kirkcaldy 2024 Air Raid 2 Wilmots Attractions
Best Transport 2024 McKay family
Best supporting attraction 2024: Asa Pullar
Best Juvenile 2024: Anthony Strand
Best catering 2024: Shels Kitchen
Best new or Improved Racher Hiscoe

In the model show congratulations goes to...

Best in show Paul Needham
Best transport Ian Thacker and Daniel Mortimer
Best Layout Ian Hides
Best new or improved Hammy J Hamilton
Archie Grieve memorial trophy Michael Molden

Well done to our winners and thanks to everyone who voted.

A massive thanks to all who helped and visited the show.

This coming Saturday is our only show of the year in Scotland held in Kirkcaldy just a stone's throw away from the fair.

Hello Everyone

We have had to make a slight adjustment to our poster for the show. If anyone has the old one downloaded to post can they please use this one instead as the old QR code has expired.

Many thanks!

Just a reminder that this coming Saturday is the Annual General Meeting taking place in Coventry this year. Further details on the venue and the day's events are here scanned from the latest Fairground Mercury issue.

Next month see's our only model exhibition in Scotland take place the Kirkcaldy Funfair Model Show on 20th April. We will be also hosting an EGM (extraordinary general meeting) at the venue for our Scottish members to attend two weeks after our customary AGM (annual general meeting) at Coventry.

30 days to go! Come visit Kirkcaldy Funfair Model Show all the fun of the fair in miniature. Open 10am - 4pm on Saturday 20th April our pop up event is not to be missed.

There will be working fairground models, transport dioramas, Road Transport Images, Fairground Trucking trade stands and hot and cold refreshments from Rosie's diner.

We thought we would share our new poster for the show. Made by Paul aka the Posterguy www.posterguy.co.uk

📷Thanks to Kieran, Rob Niall and Alex for their photos on the poster.

The Fairground Association of Great Britain kindly help sponsor the show. For more info or to join visit their fb page.

If you haven’t received your copy of the latest Mercury by now (and your subscription is up-to-date), please contact the chairman on [email protected]

Full details on the latest issue of The Fairground Mercury

The March edition of The Fairground Mercury, the quarterly magazine of the Fairground Association
of Great Britain, has been posted to all members of the FAGB. In this 40-page, full-colour issue
Bernard Mitchell recalls a run of places in Derbyshire 40 years ago; Roger Mills reaches the 1990s in
his personal survey of fair-watching through the decades; Richard Ryan recounts how he bought one
of the most remarkable Big Wheels ever built; and there’s a look at what’s on the fairground menu.
Plus Mike Willis’ record of all the recent machines changes – and lots more!
The Fairground Mercury is sent free each quarter to all members of the FAGB. If you would like to
obtain this edition and the next three issues please send a subscription fee of £15 (OAPs and under
16s, £12) to Lynn Calladine, FAGB Membership Secretary, 29 Mill Street, Belper, Derbyshire DE56
1DT. Payment should be made out to The Fairground Association of Great Britain and please enclose
a small SAE for the despatch of your membership card. Should you be overseas please add a
supplement of £5 to the subscription as a contribution to air mail costs. Payment can be made by
PayPal – see elsewhere on this site. All new members will be sent a free copy of the FAGB’s booklet
produced to mark the 900 th anniversary of Hereford May Fair – Britain’s oldest fair.

Volume 46 issue No 4 of The Fairground Mercury has been posted out to members, mine arrived today.

This can also be obtained at
https://www.fagb.co.uk/store/fairground-mercury-vol-46-no-4

Along with other back issues.

I will post full details of this issue in the next few days.

Spring will soon be upon us and the first shows of the season which we are involved with take place. Stamford Model Show which we partly sponsor takes place early this year Saturday 16th March, our Kirkcaldy Funfair Model Show is held on Saturday 20th April which will include an EGM for our Scottish members to attend. Details of our AGM will be in the March edition of the Fairground Mercury delivered free to the membership.

Missing a copy of the Fairground Mercury – the quarterly journal of the FAGB?
We are making available back issues in our store, visit https://www.fagb.co.uk/store/magazines-and-binders

New stock added weekly!

FAGB Shopfront The Fairground Association of Great Britain Shop

A few changes have been made to the FAGB website https://www.fagb.co.uk/
Coming Events: https://www.fagb.co.uk/Events.html
Also we have new ways to do membership and sales:
Membership: https://www.fagb.co.uk/store/fagb-membership
Sales: https://www.fagb.co.uk/store/
Hope you like the improvements carried out by Simon & Shaun as I very much do - Martin.

FAGB Shopfront The Fairground Association of Great Britain Shop

Because of unforeseen problems it has been decided to postpone this year’s annual general meeting of the Fairground Association of Great Britain.

Instead of being held at Nottingham on Saturday 8th October it will now take place at John Storer House, Wards End, Loughborough on Saturday 12th November, commencing at 1pm. Our apologies for any inconvenience this change might cause you.