6th July 2012

CHARD: A break in the weather for street fair

By Marion Draper

THE thought on everybody’s mind last Saturday had to have been a thank you for a break in the weather, with so many outdoor events happening over the weekend.

None more so than the committee of the Winsham Street Fair who welcomed the blazing sunshine on Saturday afternoon for their bi-annual event.

The day had a Best of British theme this time, in honour of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee and included their own version of the flotilla, with one boat on the back of a tractor trailer leading the fancy dress parade in the afternoon.

The gusty wind did cause a problem to some of the stallholders, one gazebo completely collapsed but in true British style, the Winsham Horticultural Society packed it up, moved across the street and kept calm and carried on without it. The ladies were resplendent in their hats, including the only rain cloud of the day, advertising their Mad Hatters Tea Party to be held on July 15th.

The only real interruption to proceedings was when the Nippy Bus had to come through on its unusual route.

Kelly Druce and her dancers from the Kelly Leigh Dance School were once again the main attraction with the junior and senior members of the group dancing in the street to some wartime tunes during the afternoon.

There was red, white and blue everywhere and a fantastic atmosphere with stalls lining the main street and the way down to the recreation ground, where there were further attractions and games to play, along with a hog roast.

The parade came at 2.30pm, led by Kelly and her dancers, and started at the bottom of the village, going right up through to the War Memorial and turned to come back down then going all the way to the field.

Resourceful to the last, someone appeared armed with a very long pole to allow the mast of the boat to go under the bunting. There was no fancy dress competition this year, just the relaxed atmosphere of being in the parade which was a great spectacle, filling the street as it passed.

Down on the field, there were static vehicle displays, including the former Charmouth fire engine, dated 1957 and now belonging to Colin and Jackie Gillard from south Chard who stable it in Winsham.

At seven miles to the gallon, the couple said it was fun to drive but it didn’t travel much anymore and had only done 11,000 in its lifetime.

They took it back to Charmouth in 2005 and the station wanted it back, as its smaller build was more suited to the narrow streets than the modern appliances.

There was a Punch and Judy show and skittles, and a wobbly bike challenge among other sideshows.

Everything went very smoothly and it was a great day thanks to a hard-working committee, the next Winsham Street Fair will be in 2014.

PICTURE 1: CARRYING ON - Liz Earl, Mary Burgess, Judith Robinson and Edith Chubb after they lost their awning

PICTURE 2: WE ON THE COMMITTEE - Wayne Dowell, Roger Beer, Caroline Sweetland and Colin Slade are pictured left

PICTURE 3: BEST OF BRITISH - Jelly Leigh juniors at Winsham Street Fair, right

PICTURE 4: CHARITY DRIVER - Ian Ottley and his Mini fundraises money for CHSW and Help for Heroes, below right

PICTURE 5: BOOKS FOR THE CHURCH - Keith and Helen Fowler