BS: Old fairground rides

Subject: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Apr 24 - 04:40 AM

Stemming from the thread about "Art Comin' T'Wakes" I have been relistening to the song with the correct title *The Lad and the Lass" by Steve Chatrerley. It contains the line "They'll be on t'catterpillar on Saturday neet" and I remembered the referred to caterpillar ride. I dunno if it was a thing in the US but most travelling fairs had them here in the UK. Certainly in the 60s in Manchester when I were a lad anyroads:-)

For those who don't know, the caterpillar was a ride with carriages for two, linked together like a train, that just went round in circles and up and down small rises in the track. It did go quite fast but was pretty tame until the cover came over which, from the outside, gave it its caterpillar appearance. The fun inside then started for kids who loved the dark and for older couples who loved, errr, other things :-D

I don't ride on fairs any more but the ones I have visited with the kids and then grandkids don't have the caterpillar any more. What other rides have fallen by the wayside? I can think of a couple at Belle Vue but as that pleasure park has now gone altogether I shall mention those later.

What are your memories of funfairs?

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 27 Apr 24 - 05:11 AM

”What are your memories of funfairs?”

My first funfair memory is the magic of the music of Buddy Holly, Paul Anka, Elvis, The Everlys, Gene Vincent et al, at the funfair on the rough ground opposite my gran’s house. My teen-aged aunties used to take me there as a five- or six-year-old, and I loved the R&R music and the lights - the rides not so much, they made me feel sick (although I loved the Dodgems)).

Still hate fairground/theme-park rides!

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 27 Apr 24 - 06:46 AM

The Fairground.

The fairground came, as it did each year, its joy to bring to all,
With health and safety checks on rides, to eliminate a fall.
With very loud music and flashing lights, to stimulate the senses,
And brightly painted pictures there, on all the boundary fences.
The smell of those beefburgers, toffee apples, candy floss,
What should I choose to eat here first? I’m really at a loss.
Which ride to choose, to go on first, and will it be quite full,
Will there be a bell on it, with a string for me to pull.
Will there be an empty dodgem car, so I can have a go,
Last year when I was climbing in I stubbed my little toe.
Will I still feel the same old fear, high up on the big wheel,
Some folk take it in their stride, they must have nerves of steel.
I’ll go again on the archery, a balloon to try to pop,
Last year I loved that so much, that I found I couldn’t stop.
Will I win a cuddly teddy bear, on the good old hoopla stall,
Or maybe win a goldfish, with a table tennis ball.
To throw three darts into playing cards, I was really good at that,
But everything I won was really nothing more than tat.
Wasting my money on slot machines, all my hard earned cash,
Trying to win so many games to win a lot of trash.
But I still go back there every year, my money just to burn,
You’ve surely heard the expression, Some people never learn.

Michael J Hill © March 2020.

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Apr 24 - 11:54 AM

Lovely :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 Apr 24 - 03:17 AM

Peter Bellamy Fakenham Fair

I never really fell in love till I went up to Fakenham Fair
And I chanced for to meet with a carnival girl a-selling the chances there
I tried for a lamp or a Spanish shawl or a golden filigree
But all the while her eyes were saying, “Oh! Come take a chance on me.”

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
So swing around the merry-go-round,
Give the wheel of fortune a whirl,
For the finest prize at Fakenham Fair
Is the pretty carnival girl.

Her eyes were blue, her hair it was brown and her lips they were soft and red
And a shape like hers I had never seen and my eyes well they popped from my head
But I was young and innocent but still even I could see
That the way she laughed and she winked my way it said, “Come take a chance on me.”

The old folks said, “She ain’t for you, boy, oh, what will the old people think?”
But I took my chance and I won that girl just as quick as an eye could wink
And the very best day in all my life, whatever come to pass,
Was the day that I went up to Fakenham Fair and I won me a carnival lass.

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 28 Apr 24 - 04:47 AM

Thanks Dick :-)

The Belle Vue rides that sprang to mind were the Scenic Railway and Shooting the Rapids, the latter being housed beneath the former. Shooting the Rapids was brought to mind by the Catterpillar. You walked up dark narrow passages to a chamber where the operator seated you on a metal bench and closed the door on you. The lights went out and all of a sudden the bench, which was made of rollers, flattened out and you shot down a steep slide to a bumpy conveyor belt that mimicked the action of Rapids on a river. The end of the belt dumped you unceremoniously on coconut matting. Why the Catterpillar brought it to mind is that, as kids, we loved the dark, spooky suspense and the Rapids. As older teenager lads it was better to wait at the end for lasses to come hurtling down, inevitably ending up with their skirts around their armpits :-D

The Scenic Railway was a roller coaster of a much smaller scale than Belle Vue's famous "Bobs", a huge wooden structure that I believe ended up in the USA. While the Bobs was large and scary, the Railway had steeper drops, tighter turns and little by way of safety precautions! Neither the Railway nor the Rapids would pass today's standards.

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Mr Red
Date: 30 Apr 24 - 01:28 AM

Showboats.

More Victorian. Basically a pendulum - like a kiddies swing only more like a boat, with seating for maybe a dozen. They still have them in theme parks, shaped to look like pirate ships.

Hoopla

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Apr 24 - 07:32 AM

We called them swing boats

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 May 24 - 08:07 PM

I remember riding the carousel horses, and
being fascinated by the music coming from inside the ring:
especially the mechanical drums being beaten without human agency.

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 May 24 - 07:19 AM

Stumbled across a steam fair near Masham in North Yorks at one time and they had a massive fairground organ - I was brilliant.

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 May 24 - 08:54 AM

I was brilliant of course but I meant to say IT was brilliant :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: gillymor
Date: 06 May 24 - 05:46 PM

I'm thinking of that rickety old rollercoaster in Glen Echo, MD.

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Jack Campin
Date: 06 May 24 - 11:40 PM

A sad story I heard a few days ago: a lot of the Scottish showmen ended up retiring to the caravan park next to the railway at Carntyne in Glasgow (you can see it from the train). One of them took his collection of old fairground rides with him and had them stored in a caravan/container there. He offered them to Glasgow Council's museums and they turned him down (not surprising given their attitude to popular culture). So they're still there. Any ideas?

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Jack Campin
Date: 06 May 24 - 11:40 PM

A sad story I heard a few days ago: a lot of the Scottish showmen ended up retiring to the caravan park next to the railway at Carntyne in Glasgow (you can see it from the train). One of them took his collection of old fairground rides with him and had them stored in a caravan/container there. He offered them to Glasgow Council's museums and they turned him down (not surprising given their attitude to popular culture). So they're still there. Any ideas?

Subject: RE: BS: Old fairground rides
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 May 24 - 04:26 AM

I'd have them! Sadly don't have the room though :-(

Near where I used to work in Bradford there was a compound full of fairground rides. I used to go and gaze at them longingly every now and again. Didn't half wind up the big Alsation guard dogs though so I didn't stay long.