Chatsworth Country Fair

It's a lovely morning but on the chilly side of fresh, what shall we do today?

The Country Fair is on at Chatsworth, do you fancy that? We did and here we are on our way, but stopping for the odd pic! Here looking north from the Buxton Road with Shining Tor and Cats Tor making the horizon on the right of the picture.

But, can you imagine, we weren't the only one attracted by the Chatsworth Country Fair! Here's part of the traffic tailback that made us take 45 minutes to cover less than 5km!

But here we are at last and aren't there a lot of cars! And this is only one parking area!

It would be quite churlish to grumble too much about traffic delays. On the whole the event seemed very professionally and sympathetically organised. Here is an additional temporary bridge thrown across the River Derwent purely for the occasion.

Just inside the entrance a motley collection of military vehicles (making a show of force?) ...

... closer inspection showed them to be privately owned and even the odd one for sale.

What's that about getting your tanks off my lawn?

But a Country Fair is about country life not military alarms and excursions. Here outside the Handicrafts tent, rather than under a spreading chestnut tree, the blacksmith of an unknown village hammers, heats and pounds the iron into some new shape and use.

A less noisy but no less transforming skills are being exercised in creating a rocking horse from an amalgam of wood blocks.

A country fair without a dog show and obedience display is almost impossible to conceive and there were plenty of dogs of all descriptions about the site all day. Here one of a pair of St Bernards pass docilely by with their handlers, and most dogs here were also well behaved.

....

At the Palace of the North you maybe expect to see the occasional Rolls-Royce, but two yellow ones and both so well presented ...?

This 1911 Regal was one of only a few veteran cars but the Sunday was expected to have the ranks of all classes of vehicles considerably swollen.

This Dennis fire engine would attract the attention of 'small boys' of all ages no matter how many vehicles were present.

 

Continued in Part II

Return to Top

Collections

.