Memorandum by Perretts Amusements (TF
01)
We are a family of traveling showmen, and belong
to the Society of Independant Roundabout proprietors. All our
members have either wooden, steamdriven or handturned rides, and
traditional stalls and shows. Our living wagons are our only home,
and most of our vehicles used for transporting the rides and towing
our wagons are vintage.
The set of High Flying Swings that we travel
dates from 1900. There are some rides that are older than this.
These rides and stalls are as much as part of this country's cultural
history as steam trains, and cricket on the village green.
In villages and towns all over the country,
charter fairs are held every year, and many have been going for
hundreds of years. For an example Reach Fair in Cambridgeshire
is celebrating 800 years this year. Many of the charters granted
the towns and villages a market day. Workers would take time off
and go to the markets where they could buy and sell their wares.
There would be musicians and dancing in the streets, boxing booths,
and stalls inviting you to taste their food and drink. Horses
and other animals were run up and down the streets and were bought
and sold by the slap of a hand. Then rides were brought, swing
boats and hand turned carousels. The sideshows came, the bearded
lady, the five legged beast, the two headed sheep and many more.
All there to make it a day out to remember for the rest of the
year.
Days before the fairs are due to arrive notices
go up. In the towns and villages the children talk of nothing
else. When the big lorries with loads behind pull on to the green
the whole village would go out and watch them. Many of the Showmen
had been going to the same village year after year, and their
children would follow on the tradition. Now in the towns and villages
the fairs have to build up in fields on the outskirts, because
the councils build car parks, supermarkets and shopping precincts
where the fairs used to be held.
The greens in the villages are classed as sacred
grounds and no lorries are allowed on them. A farmers field behind
the village or town is not the ideal site to put on a fair. It
should be on the village green in the centre of things so that
passers by can see that there is to be a fair on. In the towns
the fair should be in the main street, not hidden away in a car
park behind the shops. Many Statute fairs are consigned to back
streets where once they took over the whole town, as at March
in Cambridgeshire.
When the travelling showman arrives at the site,
he needs to have access for his loads, so he is not holding up
other traffic. He needs to get his living wagon settled, as many
of them have to run back to the previous site for other loads.
There should be water laid on, and access to a power supply, so
that generators are not running late at night for lights etc.
Many of the larger fairs arrange for a mobile classroom for the
children. This is ideal when many families are together, so that
the children can get help from the traveller teacher. Also the
workpacks that the children have with them from the winter schools,
can be marked and new ones arranged. The children who have no
mobile school to attend, can arrange before they get to the town
to go in to a local school for their packs to be marked, or they
can attend classes if they wish. This is not ideal as many of
the schools do not like the children to attend for just a few
days at a time. Also the child is not always happy with going
in to a strange school on their own.
For years the travelling showmen would be moving
from fair to fair during the season, and for the winter months
pulled into a yard behind a pub or a farmers field. Nowadays with
sons and daughters having their own rides, lorries and wagons,
the family unit wanting to stay together need to have yards of
their own. This base for the winter months, will be used for painting
and repairing ready for the next season. The children can attend
the local school, meeting up with their friends. Also the adults
have the chance to attend courses at local colleges under the
Lifelong Learning Initiative. Unlike Europe where winter sites
are provided for travelling fairground families, the showmen here
in Britain have to fight local planning laws to get their sites
passed as winter quarters. There should be a more flexible approach
for the change of use of land, from say agricultural to winter
quarters, especially when there are so many farms now on set aside,
and the land is no longer being used.
It is becoming increasingly important for the
travelling showmen to own their own plot of land, where they can
keep the tools of their trade and where they can have their families
around them. A place to grow old and to pass down to the next
generation.
Isn't this what all men require? You grow up,
work at your chosen profession, marry and raise a family. you
educate your children to the best of their ability, and pass down
to them all you have learnt and possess.
Ann Perrett
January 2000
|