Ship of Fools: Fairs and Fetes

Thread: Fairs and Fetes Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Yesterday I was helping at a May Fair and we had a Splat the Rat game. There was a very mixed response to it: some people knew it from their childhood as I did, others had never seen one before, including the man who built it.

When I was young, Splat the Rat was a competition between the men, children didn't get a look in. It's actually very difficult and can be set up to be harder. Yesterday it was mostly really small children with the odd adult trying it.

Something else I haven't seen for years but always had a long queue when it was on offer was bowling for a pig; the prize really was a piglet. I grew up in very rural areas.

What fairground and fête games do you remember from your childhood that have disappeared now?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I've never seen Splat the Rat before either. Whatever happened to those tests of strength things where you hit some kind of scale with a hammer to shoot a bar up a measuring pole to see how puny/mighty you are?

There are various autumn fairs in my area which are the modern-day survivors of old medieval fairs. These days they're funfairs with rides, but still have some traditional elements like coconut shies, hook-the-duck, darts and trying to throw a ring over a bottle to win a prize. The last time I tried the darts I was handed a set that were so bent they were almost a U shape, but that's all part of the fun of the fair.

The Oxford fair has changed over the years (obviously) even since I first went in about 1982. I remember the Hall of Mirrors, the Bearded Lady and the World's Tallest Dwarf (or similar), but you wouldn't find that kind of thing now.

I went to a few country fairs and fetes last summer which included ferret racing, piglet racing, and "Dog That Looks Most Like The Judge".

Posted by Diomedes (# 13482) on :

Our village church fetes always included 'Bowling for the Pig' and the prize was indeed a pig. As many people kept at least one pig it was a prize worth having! 'Bat the Rat' was a game for men back then, children got a Lucky Dip Bran Tub and a Treasure Hunt. Fetes always ended with an evening dance in the church hall where all ages joined in with The Lancers, The Military Two-Step and The Gay Gordons. I have a vivid memory of my young brother being clasped to the bosom of Miss Nunn as she steered him through The Valeta. It was a rural way of life that disappeared almost over-night. You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone!

Posted by Doone (# 18470) on :

The coconut shy and quoits were very popular round my way. The other thing was the children's fancy dress competition - and no buying them off the shelf then!

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

Throw a ring around a goldfish bowl to win a goldfish.

I won one once and the bloody thing died a few days later.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

I'd forgotten the fancy dress competition and the costumes we wore. One wet school fête, my younger sister and I happened to have bright yellow waterproof raincoats with sou'wester hats, so were sent with a bucket, hose and a small section of ladder carried between us to be firemen. We proudly carried the goldfish we won home from that one. No, it didn't survive either.

Another fête one of my friends was dressed as a snake by her mother with her brother and older sister in figleaves and not much else. We were wearing something warmer and empathised.

There was a coconut shy yesterday and one of those strength machines where you hit it with a hammer. The rescue greyhound being walked around winced each time it heard the bell.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
Throw a ring around a goldfish bowl to win a goldfish.

I won one once and the bloody thing died a few days later.

I was given a goldfish somebody else won. It lived for years.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

My last-church-but-two had a Splat the Rat which was used at all manner of events. There was also a similar idea, a malteser was rolled down a long chute with a small target painted near the end. The idea was to smash the malteser when it went over the target. The chute was uncovered, but it wasn't an even slope, so the malteser's speed varied. It was surprisingly difficult.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
I've never seen Splat the Rat before either. Whatever happened to those tests of strength things where you hit some kind of scale with a hammer to shoot a bar up a measuring pole to see how puny/mighty you are?

Carter's Steam Fair (based in Berkshire and travelling London and the Home Counties) have them! The best fun fair in Britain!

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

Toss a ring around a bottle and win a baby duck placed in an ice
cream carton to carry home.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
... the prize really was a piglet ...

Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on :

quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
My last-church-but-two had a Splat the Rat which was used at all manner of events. There was also a similar idea, a malteser was rolled down a long chute with a small target painted near the end. The idea was to smash the malteser when it went over the target. The chute was uncovered, but it wasn't an even slope, so the malteser's speed varied. It was surprisingly difficult.

I remember something similar - both the rat and the Malteser versions - at the church where I grew up.

When I went to secondary school however, and we were asked for suggestions for the school fair, I got blank looks when I suggested it. Some people genuinely thought I was taking the mick.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

A couple of years ago our church had a "snail race" sideshow at the summer fete. This consisted of clockwork snails racing slowly along a badly drawn racecourse. Part way through the afternoon, some joker (who I think may have been wearing a black shirt with a white collar) decided to add some real snails. One poor snail got very confused and appeared to be making love to one of the plastic clockwork snails.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:

Carter's Steam Fair (based in Berkshire and travelling London and the Home Counties)....The best fun fair in Britain! [/QUOTE]
Seconded! If it comes anywhere near you, go- it's brilliant.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

We had the Great Dorset Steam Fair, usually in the rain. So much so that the local shops all advertised wellies and waterproofs to wear there in the weeks leading up to it. That one used to be earlier in August.

It looks as if there are only two of the Dorset carnivals left. I reckoned they were the last hurrahs of the Michaelmas Fairs. I can only find Gillingham and Shaftesbury in October this year. There are a few more in Somerset, but there used to be so many more through September and October. (So much so that 20 or 30 years ago you had to check your route when going anywhere to make sure it was possible.)

Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :

our village, all 300 of us, has a May Fair. However, given we're about 15 miles from Oxford they haven't even tried to compete with May Day in the city for the last hundred years or so, so it's next weekend.

ferrets, terrier scurrying, welly wanging, aunt sally, etc.

It's the ploughing matches you have to watch out for at other times of the year - they get properly competitive...

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

Way back before my time, ploughing matches would have a hoeing competition for older children / teens. Whereas the ploughing matches were men-only, the hoeing competitions were open to either sex and often won by girls. There was strong competition to be the best hoe in the village.

[ 03. May 2016, 06:21: Message edited by: North East Quine ]

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

I claim to have a distinct memory from early childhood of having seen at a village fair a barrel organ with a real monkey on it in a costume.

There was a persistent legend when I was a child that they turned up the electricity on the dodgems later in the evening after we'd been taken home to bed so that they would go faster.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

I remember seeing a wood-chopping contest at an agricultural fair. They used 12" by 12" milled lumber to make sure everyone was dealing with the same thing.

The winner got through the 12" by 12" with an axe in forty-three seconds.

Moo

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

There really was a monkey and a barrel organ at one of the fairs of my childhood, you've just reminded me. The monkey was dressed up with a fez, fair isle top and trousers. I can't remember much about the barrel organ, just the monkey (I must have been about 5). I can remember I was with one of my grandmother's but have no clue as to where we were, because we did a lot with that grandmother.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

We have bowling for a ham, which is a full-sized smoked ham which a local artisan farmer/food producer donates.

Anyone else have egg-throwing? This is very popular and is almost always won by two women with a combined age of, oooh, 160 +. All the children think it must be dead easy and off they go and they seem to love it just as much when their egg breaks and their hands are covered with goo. Last year the winning distance was over 25 feet!

We have a produce show alongside the fete and there are classes for home-made wine and liquers, cooking by children to a set recipe, etc, etc, etc.

Posted by Doone (# 18470) on :

Does anyone remember Goram's Fair that visited Bristol in the 1950s. It was huge (well, to me as a little girl). I do remember being ushered past a strip tease booth [Ultra confused]

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

Way out in the boonies where I lived, we had the fish pond which was a huge favorite for the little kids. [ETA they were plastic fish with numbers and magnets on them. The fishing poles had magnets, and when the kid hooked a fish, they would get a prize that corresponded to the number on the fish.]

I enjoyed the turkey shoot. No, we didn't shoot turkeys, just targets, and the best shot for each contest won a frozen turkey! Unfortunately, it was a shotgun contest, and I was much better with a rifle. No turkey for me!

[ 04. May 2016, 12:16: Message edited by: jedijudy ]

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

Loved Splat the Rat as a child -it was a feature of various village fairs and fetes.

Also those wire games where you have to pass a wire circle along a wire without touching it and if it touches it beeps. (Difficult to describe!)

We also used to have fancy dress competitions. And fling the welly.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
Anyone else have egg-throwing? This is very popular and is almost always won by two women with a combined age of, oooh, 160 +. All the children think it must be dead easy and off they go and they seem to love it just as much when their egg breaks and their hands are covered with goo. Last year the winning distance was over 25 feet!

What an outrageous waste of food.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

posted by Spike

quote:
What an outrageous waste of food.

Not really. The eggs are donated by a parishioner and they are those which his free-range fowls deposit outside their laying boxes and which he has no way of knowing how fresh or not they are. Some birds will suddenly decide to eschew the laying boxes in their coops and go off and lay their eggs elsewhere - and not knowing how old they are means they cannot be sold; one of the disadvantages of truly free-range birds.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

Several schools and churches in my memory have had a 'Dunk-the-principal/coach/minister/curate' game -- I'm sure it has a name, but I don't know it.

The victim of choice is seated above a large tank of water, contestants throw baseballs at an attached target, if one hits it squarely and with enough force, the victim is dropped into the tank (accompanied by much hilarity). It was always very popular and a good money-maker.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Yangtze:
Loved Splat the Rat as a child -it was a feature of various village fairs and fetes.

Also those wire games where you have to pass a wire circle along a wire without touching it and if it touches it beeps. (Difficult to describe!)

We also used to have fancy dress competitions. And fling the welly.

And what about one of those bikes where the handlebars were arranged so that when you turned them to the left the front wheel went right and vice versa, and you had to ride them on a straight course?

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Yangtze:
Also those wire games where you have to pass a wire circle along a wire without touching it and if it touches it beeps.

I made one of those for the fairs at our son's primary school. It ran for several years.

Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :

A staple in rural areas is some variant of "Cow Pie Bingo": a paddock is marked off in numbered squares, tickets are sold, then a cow is let into the paddock and watched to see which square it chooses to decorate first. Even more enthusiastic when ticket-holders are allowed around the fence to encourage the cow towards their square.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

I'll be able to report on our local Folk Festival next week. [Smile]

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
I'll be able to report on our local Folk Festival next week.

It was good, and apart from a downpour at 5pm on Saturday the weather was good too. Almost too good as most of the dance performances and the ceilidhs were in marquees which are like giant plastic tents, which is tough on the more energetic dancers. Still, the beer and cider sold well.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

We've spent the morning at ours. I have won a coconut at the coconut shy, narrowly lost in a basketball shoot-out against my husband and we both managed a 1 in 3 splat rate in the wet sponge in the face thing against each other. I have bought home baking, and fair trade coffee. I left the bottle stall empty-handed, have had an update on the health of a neighbour's cat, and various other local news.

All highly satisfactory.

Posted by justlooking (# 12079) on :

quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
I left the bottle stall empty-handed,

I left the bottle tombola at today's church fair with a bottle of beer, a bottle of red wine, a 35cl bottle of sherry and a 75cl bottle of Amaretto liqueur plus a bottle of tomato ketchup and a large bottle of fruit-flavoured sparkling water. This was the loot from £6 worth of tickets. I also had a 'pie-and-pea' lunch with a glass of wine, the church hall bar being open. There are worse ways to spend an hour or two on a Saturday.

Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :

Loving the Cow Pat Bingo idea!

I can recall.... actual snail races.....pillow fights on a greased pole.....tug of war, over a small stream.....garden -on-a-plate contests...china smashing, which is a variant on coconut shys....guess the weight of the chicken .....but splat the rat was my all time favourite!

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

Ethna - most of those took place in suburban Essex in the 70s - I'd forgotten Dad's tug-o-war and the slippery pole. I made an electric-bendy-wire-buzzer thing, which still comes out for school and church things sometimes - we do it against the clock and people get quite competitive. Polish parents tell me it's familiar to them too.

Something I've not seen for years is a pull-a-string - where someone laboriously threads 100s of strings over a frame and ties some to sweets. You pay 5p (or maybe it was 2p!) to pull a string, and see if you get nothing, or something indigestible by pride of New Mills (near here), Swizzels Matlow

It doesn't really count, but I once went to Hull fair (a big funfair really) and they had a touring wall of death . That would be fun to make...

Posted by Rev per Minute (# 69) on :

quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Way back before my time, (snip) there was strong competition to be the best hoe in the village.

And we thought that such behaviour was a modern problem! [Eek!]

Posted by Daffodil (# 13164) on :

Hurried preparations are underway to belatedly celebrate the Queen's Birthday with a fun day type event in mid June.
Our tombolas and similar have to be prize a time to avoid the accusation that the church is promoting gambling. I do like it when people win! My daughter, has never quite grasped the chance element on tom bolas elsewhere and somehow thinks she will win whatever she sets her heart on....and has not yet realised that she doesn't [Ultra confused]

In the past the Crockery Smashing stall was always a big hit [Devil]

Must climb up into the hall loft and find out if the splat the rat still works... and what other forgotten goodies are still there!

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