Fairs, Markets, Shops and Centres

One especially good reason to head for Brighton over the weekend of October 22-23 is the presence of two fairs running at the south coast city’s racecourse.

Vincent Pugh and his wife Lesley White have opened their fourth centre under the brand name of Antiques on High.

‘Overflowing’ is how you might describe The Vintage Bazaar held in the Cheese and Grain, a community events venue in Frome, Somerset.

String of events such as So Last Century experience strong interest

“The feedback from dealers and visitors was very good and as a venue the showground has great potential for growth with excellent road links,” said Kate Button of Black Dog Events as she talked about her new event, Antiques in the Park.

Grade II-listed manor house Burton Court near Leominster, Herefordshire, is the setting for Antiques in Tents’ next fair on Friday and Saturday, October 14-15, with 50 dealers.

Fairs are often good places to celebrity-spot and one of these sighted at the Ludlow fair was the veteran Led Zeppelin rock great, Robert Plant.

Examples from the UK and Commonwealth featuring the late queen make mementoes.

Fire Kettle Events runs the popular biannual antiques and collectables fairs at the 14-acre Coolings Garden Centre in Knockholt, near Sevenoaks in Kent.

The trader figures for Jonathan Nixon’s antiques and vintage market in Cheltenham – launched at the beginning of July – are now approaching 60.

If your fountain pen is prone to leaking, as King Charles III’s unfortunate double mishap in Edinburgh and Belfast showed, then maybe pay a visit to the biannual specialist London Autumn Pen Show on October 9.

Many visitors to the popular Adam’s fair end up buying items they had not come for.

Hemswell Antique Centres is now completely full with 400 dealers trading out of the four centres on the Hemswell Cliff site in Lincolnshire.

Jennifer Titmuss of Corky Events, who runs monthly antiques markets in St Albans and on Chiswick High Road, is on the move again as she launches a market in the E17 London Borough of Walthamstow with the first on Sunday, September 25.

There are few antiques centres and even fewer fairs held in garden centres and nurseries but along has come news of The Potting Shed Brocante which ran at the King John’s Nursery in the Kent village of Etchingham earlier this month.

Serendipitous finds – and planned purchases – abound as antiques return to Ally Pally

Chelsea event plans on hold for now but organiser is upbeat about Surrey fair and brocante.

What is likely to be very good news for Edward Cruttenden of Sunbury Antiques and his antiques markets at Kempton Park Racecourse is a film studio invasion at local Shepperton Studios, owned by the Pinewood Group.

Keeley Rosendale of Discover Vintage is looking forward to being back at St Mary’s Church (right) in Primrose Hill, north London, on Saturday, September 24, with her third vintage home show at this location – “a fabulous building”, she said.

Joy O’Meara of Jay Fairs has invited Ruby’s Vintage Fairs, aka Lyn Mistry and Yvonne Hockey to join her in the upstairs room at the antiques and collectors’ fair that she runs at the parish hall in the Oxfordshire village of Benson.