Regional Fairs

ESSEX organiser Robert Bailey is not a man easily daunted, which was fortunate when a week before his Cheshire Spring Antiques and Fine Art Fair at Tatton Park he was warned of major road closures for visitors using the M6 and the Manchester route M56.

ALREADY a good day out for the public, there is increasing trade awareness of the Oxford Brocante, the third of which will be held on Sunday April 18 at the Randolph Hotel in Beaumont Street. With the emphasis very much on decorative works it also offers vintage fashion.

FOR many dealers the surprise success of last year was the launch of the audaciously named fair Antiques and Audacity, which was held from May 16 to 18 in the grounds of Arundel Castle.

Local trade fare particularly well at Powderham: TWO weeks ago, when Sue Ede of Cooper Antiques Fairs promised her new West Country Antiques Fair at Powderham Castle, near Exeter, would be “an antiques event of a quality not seen before in the West Country”, I must admit I thought that a very bold claim indeed.

A MASKED gang took a substantial quantity of antique jewellery during a robbery at the Petersfield Antiques Fair held at the Festival Hall in the town from February 6-8.

ORGANISER Sue Ede of Cooper Antiques Fairs is promising “an antiques event of a quality not seen before in the West Country” with this weekend’s launch of her West Country Antiques Fair at Powderham Castle, near Exeter. It seems a bold claim but, on reflection, there have not been that many successful quality fairs in the West Country so Mrs Ede may well be on safe ground.

SPECIALIST organisers Oxbridge Fairs have made a change of venue for their third Cambridge Glass Fair. It will be held on Sunday February 15 outside the city at Chilford Hall Vineyard, Linton, which is also the site of fine art printers the Curwen Press.

Pictures and furniture were the commodities in demand at a busy Tatton Park Fair which Robert Bailey held from January 9 to 11. The Essex organiser regularly tends to pick up quite a bit of business at this early-year venue.

WORKING under the name Palm Antiques Fairs, Norfolk-based Joy Fletcher launched her Palm Antiques Fair at Blackthorpe Barn, Rougham, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk over the weekend of September 26 to 28 and tells me both she and her exhibitors were happy enough with business to warrant a re-run on March 26-28 next year.

ONE of the Home Counties’ longest running vetted, quality events, the Surrey Antiques Fair, will be held for the 36th year from October 2 to 5 and it will be the end of an era as this is the last staging at its original venue, the Guildford Civic Hall.

WITH more than 1000 dealers spread over 101/2 acres few would argue with the claim of Atlantique City to be the world’s largest indoor antiques and collectables show.

For many years now Stanway House, an outstanding Jaco-bean manor house at Winchcome, half way between Tewkesbury and Stow on the Wold in the heart of the Cotswolds countryside, has been the glorious setting for Cooper Antiques Fairs’ North Cotswolds Antiques Fair.

THE first quality fair of 2003 is one of Robert Bailey’s strongest events, the 11th Cheshire New Year Antiques and Fine Art Fair at Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire. It runs from January 3 to 5.

SOME regular exhibitors have been standing at Cooper Antiques Fairs' premier autumn event, the Cheshire County Antiques Fair, for 14 years and not many have been doing it for less than five.

TATTON Park in Cheshire is the National Trust’s most visited property, but not only is it the country’s favourite, it is also a big favourite of Essex organiser Robert Bailey who holds four Tatton fairs a year.

EVER-resilient Essex organiser Robert Bailey is back on the acquisitions trail, if in a modest way. He has just taken over fellow Essex organiser Patricia Cox’s twice-yearly Tattersalls fairs at Newmarket, Suffolk and will run the next fixture from September 13 to 15.

BIRMINGHAM-based Centre Exhibitions, headed by Fran Foster, launch a new series of fairs from October 18-20 when the first Ceramics For Everyone Fair is held at The Grandstand, Worcester Racecourse.

Pennyfarthing Fairs cancelled their antiques fair at The Wyllyotts Centre, Potters Bar on Sunday, May 12 following the train crash in the town on Friday May 10 in which seven people died.

HAMPSHIRE organiser Valerie Sleeney of Grandma’s Attic Fairs holds the first staging of the year of her flagship event at The Pavilion Ballroom, Bournemouth on April 27 and 28.

The second Detling fair of the year (February 23-24) indicates that the trade is not being put off by the Kent Act.