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Onion Fair

I never made it to the onion fair,although i did know of it. I did get taken to the Stratford upon Avon Mop fair, no idea why it was so named but it was great fun. ???

Stratford upon Avon mop still goes on every October. Then it comes to Warwick the week after and is called ...The Runnaway Mop...:rolleyes:
 
The Ride

Come ride the carousel with me, enjoy yourself, smile, giggle with glee.

Miniature brass band, music is playing, up and down motion gently swaying. Men made of brass dressed in clothing of yore, play a minuet and waltz, but yearning for more.

Hold on to the pole and climb aboard, ready for an adventure, take hold of the cord. Carousel is beginning to circle around choose your seat before hitting the ground. Sit on a rabbit and wave to the crowd, feeling pretty good, perhaps even proud. Spinning faster enjoying the ride let out a laugh with your heart open wide.

Around and around, up and down, everyone smiling - no time for a frown. Climb up on the horse, begin to sing, perhaps today is the day you catch the ring- you reach up high and almost touch heaven, open your hand, ring number seven.

Tilt your head let the breeze kiss your face always remember this wonderful place. Slowing down now, you patiently wait others are standing by the gate.
 
The onion fair.

:D This a photograph of Mrs Humphries. She owned the rifle range. We became very good friends of the family and kept in touch with Clara and Ruth her daughters. They still lived in their wagon until they both died about 13 years ago. The travelling fair people used to winter at Nuneaton, Bedworth. Bye for now. Jean.:D
 
La French

The french would come over to this country to sell there onions.
Could be were the saying comes from (Know your onions)
I would come home with two black feet after being to the fair, but it was great fun.
 
Onion Soup yummy

Thanks for that Alf,

I know that the French are akin to the Scots coming from that race of folk myself. ( The Young Queen and the Bonny Prince )

I am a keen soup maker, so i shall make myself that recipe.

Think i posted this once before, when i go into Exeter in the early summer the French are there,( just for a short period of time.) you name it they sell it, all presented fresh and wholesome, cost, a little higher but it is fresh and they have more to choose from instead of this slap it together pack and sell it attitude. They also bring one of my childhood favourites liquorice root.
 
Fair at Witton Lakes

Does any-one remember a fair at Witton Lakes.?
 
Thank you

Thanks for that Alf brought lot's of memories flooding back, very good photographer Mr Berry. thought i was the only one that would have remembered the fair....lol........ Cat
 
Nero the Lion - Onion Fair - 1924

While my father, Richard Fryer, was a student at Station Road School, in Aston, Birmingham, Warwickshire, he was outside in the area in which Nero, the lion that escaped, from the Onion Fair at the Serpentine Grounds, in 1924, was roaming.

He still remembers seeing claw marks on a church building or monument.

More details are given at https://www.astonbrook-through-astonmanor.co.uk/aston_brook_through_aston_manorb0.htm and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-baiting.

Regards, R. Paul R.
 
Escaped lion.

:skull: I wasn't born until 1946 but I can remember as a child being shown a gravestone where the lion sat. Poor creature. He didn't know any better just wanted a thing called freedom. :skull: TTFN. Jean.
 
Wow! My mother used to go on at length about 'the day the Lion escaped'. She was 13 at the time and she actually saw the poor old lion wandering around Aston Churchyard, and she reckoned that he was more scared of people than the people were of him! I seem to remember Mom saying that the poor beast was shot in the churchyard.

The expression 'the day the Lion escaped' turned into a bit of family stuff-and-nonsense for us, meaning that something or the other happened so long ago that it had almost been forgotten.

Personally, I detest seeing animals kept in enforced captivity. Only once in my life have I ever been to a circus, when I was very young. I was taken by Dad to a circus in (I think) Perry Hall Park, and that did it for me. Apart from the nightmarish clowns, the sight of animals being made to do tricks for the supposed 'entertainment' of humans sickened me, and it still does.
Sorry to be so negative, in case some people reading this actually like circuses and zoos, but I really do feel very, very strongly about this.

Big Gee
 
Re: Re Onion Fair

THANK ALL. for replys to why "onion fair"
peter martin
My mother lived at number 10 Yewtree Road,which was right by Serpentin site ,where onion fair took place. When she was a child,her father George Bullock used to let people use his outside toilet in his garden. In them days the onion fair had no on site toilets.The only catch was he charged them. My mother and sisters and brothers used to stand at bottom of there entry shouting toilets. my grandad charged them an 1/2 penny for a wee and 1 penny for a number 2. If they said they were doing a wee and took to long ,my grandad used to say charge him a penny hes trying to twist us.Other memories my mother used to tell us was when fair had moved they used to search serpintine foe any money that had been dropped.My mother also remembers lion escaping ,and she told me it finished up in Aston Church grounds.Unfortunatly my mother died last year ,she would have loved to here stories on web site about the fair.
 
Morriss. Is your sir name Gardener?. You would have lived close to Keith Scrivens. Only bumped into him the other day. He's bought a caravan on Banks Farm where we are. Small world eh. Jean.
 
Yes I agree Nas. I still have most of their photo's. Mind you do you remember the nude show. They were not allowed to move. Just stand there. Us holte road crowd stood at the back wolf whisteling and got kicked out. Jean.
 
Morriss. Is your sir name Gardener?. You would have lived close to Keith Scrivens. Only bumped into him the other day. He's bought a caravan on Banks Farm where we are. Small world eh. Jean.
Hi jean my surname is Morris my first name is Reg.
all the best reg
 
hi i have a memory of a large boxing booth and Randy Turpin either just before or just after he had a title fight with( Sugar Ray ?) im fairly certain it was the Onion Fair perhaps somebody could confirm it
33bus
tom
 
Big Gee I too went to a circus in Perry Hall park and had a nasty experience when one of the bare back riders fell off falling partly on me. Never liked circus from that day on. Mind you as a young child I loved the fair and having the Humphresses as family friends I hardly paid for any of the rides. I remember Alan on the little wheel he was always giving me freerides. 33 bus. Pete's just walked through the door and says he remembers Randolf Turpin and others boxing. Mind you Pete is a few years older than me. Ha Ha. Jean.
 
Big Gee I too went to a circus in Perry Hall park and had a nasty experience when one of the bare back riders fell off falling partly on me. Never liked circus from that day on. Mind you as a young child I loved the fair and having the Humphresses as family friends I hardly paid for any of the rides. I remember Alan on the little wheel he was always giving me freerides. 33 bus. Pete's just walked through the door and says he remembers Randolf Turpin and others boxing. Mind you Pete is a few years older than me. Ha Ha. Jean.
I REMEMBER RANDY TURPIN FIGHTING IN A BOXING BOOTH AT ASTON ONION FAIR THINK THEY USED TO USE IT FOR TRAINING. I THOUGHT ONE TIME I SAW FREDDIE MILLS THERE BUT I MIGHT HAVE BEEB MISTAKEN. THE BOXING BOOTHS AT THAT TIME USED TO OFFER CONTESTANTS IN CROWD THE CHANCETO FIGHT THE BOXERS,AND IF THEY LASTED 3 ROUNDS THEY USED TO GIVE THEM £10. THEY WOULD PLAY WITH YOU IN TWO ROUNDS THEN MAKE SURE YOU DID NOT LAST 3RD ROUND. IVE SEEN MANY A DRUNKEN MAN TRY FIGHTING AFTER BEEN EGGED ON BY THERE MATES. BY FOR NOW REG
 
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