Fairs, Markets, Shops and Centres

There are many sounds which you might hear in an antiques centre: dealers moving objects around for display, customers talking as they enthuse over the stock and the regular ringing of tills.

Trade at an antiques and retro shop which opened bang in the middle of the pandemic last year in the village of Wombourne, near Wolverhampton has started to blossom in the last few weeks say the owners of Raven’s Nest Antiques, Mel Jones and Marcus Wortans.

News earlier this month of the discovery of Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition ship, in the icy waters of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica, will surely have made the hearts of dealers and collectors of polar material beat a little faster.

Newmarket and Yorkshire events feature in this round up of fairs news

Stall-holders report brisk trade during the latest staging of the huge West Sussex event

Cornish event hosted in historic house and grounds will now be staged twice a year.

Mid-century and modern pieces will feature at Wyke House this month

Launching on Sunday, April 3, in the West Sussex town of Midhurst is Phoenix Fairs’ vintage, antique and militaria fair.

Some people like to call their antiques businesses by names that are personal to them and which have a strong family connection, such as Noble Salvages in Swadlincote and Peggy McCools in Warrington.

Described by one visitor as “a cocktail of the senses when you step inside,” the Brothership Studio in Hertford offers the work of seven artists plus guests across two studios and galleries in the town.

Society announces Carmarthen event dates and stall and entry prices to be held at 2019 level.

“It is with sincere uplifted spirits that I can confirm without any doubt that the Benson Antiques Fair will take place on Sunday, March 20.”

At last October’s Bloomsbury Book Fair organiser Etc Fairs ran a concurrent photography event. It was such a success that it is being repeated as part of the 40-dealer book fair on Sunday, March 13, at the Holiday Inn in Bloomsbury.

Five years ago Lewis Walduck was a 13-year-old horology-mad schoolboy when he took over the small monthly antiques fair held in the village of Brill in Buckinghamshire.

The latest Covid restrictions to be eased make a buying trip across the Channel more realistic

Mandy Allen, owner of the Shirehall Plain Antiques Centre in the Norfolk town of Holt, is launching a third antiques and collectors’ fair in the county.

Where once churches were dismantled following dwindling congregations and the prohibitive cost of their upkeep, many redundant premises, often fine examples of Victorian Gothic architecture, have been transformed as community hubs.

Snapshot of the successful Sunbury event that has been around for over 40 years

Organisers’ first Woking Leisure Centre event attracts trade buyers well before opening

The Antique Scientific Instruments Fair ran for 30-plus years but sadly is no more, with its last outing taking place under the banner of the Scientific Instrument Society held as part of the Antique Arms Fair in London in September 2019.