Fair organiser Maureen Carson narrowly missed the accident when she changed her plans while shopping, walking under the bridge five minutes before its partial collapse, which led to one fatality from the falling debris.
The crash, which left her and her Art Deco dealer husband, Sean, shaken, led them to cancel the weekend fair immediately, allowing stallholders time to rebook elsewhere. They said that it would have been too “macabre” to go ahead with the event.
As it turned out, the need for access for emergency vehicles meant that the event would probably have had to be cancelled anyway.
“The stallholders were all very good about it. They understood that it would not have been right to have held the fair,” Mrs Carson told the Gazette. “It would be so macabre, you can see the railway from outside the door. In a situation like that, no one would have come although we had phone calls from 6am on the Sunday from the trade trying to find out if it was on. The stallholders were all very supportive and one even offered to pay his stall rent so that we wouldn’t lose out.”
She said their sympathies were with the families of those who lost their lives and with those who were injured.
The next fair will go ahead as planned on June 9 and the 75 stalls are fully booked.
Potters Bar fair cancelled in wake of rail crash
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.
