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Onion Fair

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rod
  • Start date Start date
This although NOT the Onion Fair, Should bring back many memories of Pat Collins Funfair, and the Wonderland 98 Key Marenghi Organ, also shown the Traction Engine 'The Leader' which was at the Onion Fair many times.

 
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This is what I believe is was known as a hurdy gurdy.
Barrel organs have cylinders to make them work, the Marenghi type used 'books' of continuous punched card (early computer I guess ;))
 
G G Jean said:
:peach:Think it was the Autumn Eric as there was always a chill in the air but we soon warmed ourselves up. My neighbor and moms friend May Chapman always cooked the Venison and sometimes did a pig on a spit. Oh yes Happy days had by all.:peach:
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What number did your mum live at? My gran was called May Chapman and I wonder if it’s the same May.
 
I knew your Nan and Granddad very well Josephine. She used to give me extra meat when she did the roasts at the fairground. I think she may have worked at the IMI as a cook. Mom was a pastry cook there.
 
G G Jean said:
I knew your Nan and Granddad very well Josephine. She used to give me extra meat when she did the roasts at the fairground. I think she may have worked at the IMI as a cook. Mom was a pastry cook there.
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Yes, Gran was a cook at the ICI I think. It’s a small world isn’t it :)
(May Chapman centre front row top photo and second right front row in the bottom one)
 

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I am sure that is how mom got the job through your nan. They were very friendly but never in and out of houses but always there to help one another out. I have many photo's of the IMI canteen and will look for a thread on here and post some.
 
G G Jean said:
I am sure that is Mrs Kelly the boss in the middle/middle row top photo.
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I was a bit confused by the ICI/IMI relationship. Dad has just explained that before the war the ICI (Imperial Chemical company) was formed by a consortium and that was what that part of the company was called when my Gran first worked there, but after the war it became known as IMI (The Imperils metals company - a subsidiary of ICI) because they’d been involved with making copper and brass for munitions during the war and to the best of my knowledge was still called that when she retired.

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apparently she was transferred to the Zip Fasteners Division and stayed there until she retired.
 
The link with the Onion Fair and your nan being in charge of the roast was it was arranged by the IMI If I remember correctly.
 
G G Jean said:
The link with the Onion Fair and your nan being in charge of the roast was it was arranged by the IMI If I remember correctly.
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I’d not heard about that before. I do know the Prices/Chapmans had strong links to the fair. They were very friendly with Josephine and Albert Hedges and Annie Rogers and Alf Farmer who spent their honeymoon night at 49.
 
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Eric Gibson said:
My recollection of the Onion Fair is a bit embarasing.
I'd just returned from National Service, went with my wife and leaving the fair she was walking just behind me I reached back and took her hand , we walked on for several paces then I turned to speak to her and it wasn't her but another lady, contentedly holding on, my wife still a couple of paces back grinning. :oops:
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:grinning::grinning::grinning::grinning: love it. i bet the woman thought it was her luck day.
 
This was the Onion Fair in 1873. I think this was held in the Bull Ring. Maybe the Onion Fair mentioned earlier in this thread took its name from this fair. It was obviously originally a fair at which onions were sold.

There were several posts about the Onion Fair in the Bull Ring thread which I’ve now copied to this thread, so those posts may not have been seen by readers. Viv.042950DB-DF17-47A9-BB12-E4B1E01BC74C.jpeg
 
Ned Williams book "The Birmingham Onion Fair", states that By 1860, local tradesmen businessmen were worried that onion sellers and horse traders were OK, but showmen were unwanted and should be banned. In 1875 the regulations were changed and wild beast shows,, shooting galleries and the pitching of any show or exhibition was banned from the fair in the Bull Ring, But that an attempt to keep alive the "fun of the fair" had been made by establishing a rendezvous for stalls and exhibitions on a piece of waste ground in Aston
 
Well that clearly explains it Mike thanks. I did wonder exactly what was on offer at the Onion Fair as well as onions. And, in any case, can’t imagine there was much space for too many side shows in the Bull Ring. Viv.
 
mikejee said:
Ned Williams book "The Birmingham Onion Fair", states that By 1860, local tradesmen businessmen were worried that onion sellers and horse traders were OK, but showmen were unwanted and should be banned. In 1875 the regulations were changed and wild beast shows,, shooting galleries and the pitching of any show or exhibition was banned from the fair in the Bull Ring, But that an attempt to keep alive the "fun of the fair" had been made by establishing a rendezvous for stalls and exhibitions on a piece of waste ground in Aston
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Ha ha this made me smile "a piece of waste ground in Aston" it was called the Serpentine Ground and I loved the Onion Fair. Even though we had no money just the bright lights , watching the rides and the side shows. You could smell the roast on the spit as you walked in through the gates. The Candy Floss stall. (Never did like Candy Floss) and then just being able to wander around. I remember the boxing booth and even as a nipper I could not understand why anybody could even try. One of the side shows was a Tattooed Lady. She would'nt look out of place these days. Just grateful to have these memories. I drove past a couple of years ago and its now an industrial estate.
 
Ken1947 said:
Ha ha this made me smile "a piece of waste ground in Aston" it was called the Serpentine Ground and I loved the Onion Fair. Even though we had no money just the bright lights , watching the rides and the side shows. You could smell the roast on the spit as you walked in through the gates. The Candy Floss stall. (Never did like Candy Floss) and then just being able to wander around. I remember the boxing booth and even as a nipper I could not understand why anybody could even try. One of the side shows was a Tattooed Lady. She would'nt look out of place these days. Just grateful to have these memories. I drove past a couple of years ago and its now an industrial estate.
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This took me back. I was a youngster back in the fifties, and would catch the bus from great Barr, and then walk from Wellfield Road, Perry Barr, to the Serpentine Ground. I loved the Onion Fair so much, that later, when I started to do bits of radio, I did a piece for Carl Chinn's programme, on BBC Radio WM. I took the old memories I had, and recorded them as verse. Yes, I took some artistic licence with my memories, but it is all there in essence. I called it "Me Mom Said".
 
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