A jolly good time at the fair!

Carter’s Steam Fair came to town the other week. And while I don’t usually blog about ‘just a single day’, opting instead for a marathon account of our latest adventure (that will come, they are backing up!) I felt this particular day was just too good not to share.

This one will be short and sweet. Just like the steaming hot cinnamon donuts that taste awesome out of a carnival caravan…I hadn’t had a hot donut in years…although I have to say the boys didn’t like them! I blame myself. Too much home made prepared snacks like cut up fruit. What was I thinking!

Anyway, back to the fair. A pinch myself moment: Standing in the tokens line I got talking to a man who was filling up a plastic bag with coin tokens while his kids shoved the rest in their pockets – that would do them for many, many rides I thought. He explained they lived just over the back fence there and the kids had been hassling to go to the fair for days. Every day in the week prior when the show folk had been setting up, the kids would come down and watch. It turned out the cast of Midsomer Murders were in town to film an episode. The episode is set in the gorgeous little town of Holyport where we found ourselves, just 4 miles from Windsor. It has a village green and two pubs facing into the village green, while the fair is in the middle. It really is very picturesque and very English.

The production team asked the kids to film a scene on the haunted house ride. So, these ghost ride virgins, as their father put it, were suitably miked up to record terrifying screams. Except the kids froze in real terror and uttered not a sound…Nothing was recorded when they played it back. And they refused to have another go – the poor things were terrified! So while laughing along with this well spoken English man in his tweed jacket, I thought to myself…Midsomer. Here. All those years of watching the show and dreaming of living in a little English village with a thatched roof and Tudor walls and riding a step-through bicycle with a trilling bell while taking the boys to school in a little village-cosy school house where they called them into class with a brass bell… Well, while none of that ever actually came to pass, at least a film set location had. Pity we’d missed the actual filming! But happy to know it was happening here anyway!

I can see why Midsomer Murders would use the fair as a backdrop. Carters Steam Fair is a traditional, vintage, family owned carnival that travels all over the Home Counties – those counties that border Greater London. A perfect location for some grizzly village murders, small town eccentricity and beautiful English backdrops. Over the years the family have collected all these vintage rides and restored them back to their former glory – a bit of British Heritage that you can touch and not just look at. The paintwork and artistic flair on the rides is beautiful. The colours are exuberant, the lights are sparkly in the darkening afternoon skies. The steam organ of the vintage Jubilee Steam Gallopers (read: carousel) belts out carnival tunes at high speed, creating an atmosphere of gaiety and fun. It’s like stepping back in time. And then whoosh! up goes a puff of steam, helping to propel and generate any number of rides.

Some of these rides date back to the late 19th century. Anthony braved the Victory Dive Bomber that could well have been used in the war it was so old. The rock n roll dodgems were awesome as they always are – who doesn’t love the dodgem cars (bumper cars over here mum, bumper cars). The Paramount Chair-O-Plane was like walking on air except Hamish thought he might accidentally kick someone in the head! The White Waltham High Flyers, or swing-boats, were unexpectantly fun, being designed for two people facing each other and making them go by pulling ropes. Such a simple design but something our two boys adored and didn’t want to get off. Proving once again that kids will always love the simple stuff. The staff were very generous and let them stay on for ages.

That was our day at the fair, and here’s hoping we can catch it again next year. For now, I’m keeping my eye out for the new episodes of Midsomer Murders. The village pub of Holyport features prominently in the filming of the episode we just missed, and was renamed from George On The Green to The Black Dog. So there’s your clue!