Fairs, Markets, Shops and Centres

France remains one of the most popular holiday destinations for UK residents. If you want to combine an antiques/vintage buying trip with a holiday in either Provence or the Haute-Savoie this month, then a visit to two of the regions’ most attractive towns might feature high on the itinerary.

Firle Place near Lewes in East Sussex is the seat of Nicholas Gage, the 8th Viscount Gage, whose family has owned the estate since the 15th century.

Every year in the seaside town of Bangor, south of Belfast, a small, local and dedicated team puts on an ambitious month-long programme of concerts, dance, arts and literary events, plus food and wine evenings.

Extra outside pitches have been hailed by the organiser of the monthly Tuesday antiques market at Sandown Park Racecourse as a reason for the relatively new event settling in well.

Marcel Epstein is an ephemera dealer and fair organiser running antiques and collectors’ fairs in north London and south Hertfordshire. His next quarterly fair is in Berkhamsted, at the sports centre in the town on Sunday, July 29, and 100 standholders are booked.

The Victorian fascination for natural history led to many a front parlour having as its centrepiece a cased display of butterflies.

The Royal Horticultural Society’s 65-acre gardens in a north Devon valley form the fragrant floral backdrop for Devon County Antiques Fairs’ quarterly two-day antiques and collectors’ events.

After a slow start to the year, the Malvern Flea and Collectors’ Fair is looking forward to a bumper summer.

A well-known antiques centre on the point of closure last year after 20 years of trading – and saved in no small part by the social media reach of ATG – will shortly celebrate its first year under new ownership.

Salvage dealers are increasingly bringing smaller decorative items to the Knebworth Park fair.

The north-south divide has thrown up some interesting trends that intrigue Arthur Swallow Fairs director Richard Burgoin.

With the Meteorological Office showing that roasting temperatures are ‘here to stay’ at the beginning of July in the UK, and people sweltering on packed beaches, cooling off in the sea is essential. And what better than in a vintage swimsuit?

Antiques street markets and fairs are a boon to local businesses, a popular and lively addition to any small well-visited town, particularly in the summer when these are buzzing with tourists.

Most of the UK may be going through a heatwave, but even if the clouds appear IACF’s new three-day antiques and collectors’ fair at the Staffordshire Showground will shine through.

The owner of an antiques shop in the Norfolk town of Diss which has been in his family for nearly 50 years is closing the business and relocating a few miles away.

It’s always heartening to hear of redundant churches being put to another use. A Grade II-listed Victorian church in Wolverhampton which has been empty for more than a decade is set to open as an antiques centre later this month.

Thornton Kay, long-time organiser of the annual Salvo fair, has been in touch to say what he’s been doing on his year’s sabbatical from organising the event.

Designer Vicki Ambery-Smith is regularly selected to show at the prestigious annual Goldsmiths Fair at Goldsmiths Hall in London.

The long-awaited return in Derbyshire by Halcyon Fairs to the newly restored Octagon ballroom in Buxton’s magnificent Victorian pavilion has been delayed again due to ongoing works.

The long-running Antique Scientific Instrument Fair has been given a boost by the Scientific Instrument Society (SIS).