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Friends It's that time of year again the first week in October Goose fair is here or don't we care anymore.

Friends Personally i won't be going down this year due to personal reasons but the wife and i might wait until later on when Ilkeston has theirs.. Friends

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Hi Stavertongirl  thanks for telling me about the cakewalk being at Goose Fair,  just a quick story Friday night 8th Oct 1965 the following day was my wedding day, any way all the ladies had just had

When I was about 15 my two friends and I decided we wanted to be at Goose Fair when it ended at midnight (?) on the Saturday.  Another friend (Deirdre) and her brother lived up Sherwood Rise and invit

GOSH!!!!  Goose Fair what memories? age 13/15   used to walk down to the Forest from Robin Hood Chase with my  best friend Wendy Husband . each night Monday till Wednesday, What I here you l

You can have it me duck, I was never one for cheap souveniers. But I would love to visit Nottm one time & go to Goose Fair. OOh the smells get my juices going,hot doughnuts, fairy floss & toffee apples,bet it wouldnt be the same, things never are.

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  • 11 months later...

October the first today and it's Goose Fair on Wednesday so who's going and when because if I can find out who is going and when I can time my visit so it don't coinside with yours..... hellothere

 

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Your to generous ilko if you don't watch it you will spoil those grand kids of yours.........

I can't say if I'm going to the ilkeston fair as yet it just depends weither I can get a battery powerful enough to power me buggy there and back from Chilwell......If I do go I will look out for you peeping though your upstairs nets............lets hope the mushy peas are better this year, last year it was like playing hook a duck with the peas and the mint sauce was no better, all Vinegar no mint........ :Vampire:

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  • 11 months later...

That time of year again?

How much are the rides this year? I brought SWMBO over about 5 years ago and they were £1.50-£2.00 then

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Not bin to GF for years.

I remember going on the Forest every year to see the lorries pull on the Sunday before the fair. They would be queing all the way along Gregory Blvd. Exciting times for me as a Kid. I would also be there on the Sunday morning they packed up. That must have been around 1964 I think?

I remember buying a bell to go round my neck there. Flower Power?

Records of the Era, 'If your going to San Francisco' and 'Flowers in the rain' (The Move?)

Great Pics Frank, Brought back some memories. :rolleyes:

OH! Didn't the goose get nicked one year?

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Wish I could go! It is always the weekend before my birthday - and I remember going on the bus and walking from Mansfield Road when I was a little 'un!

Do they still sell the big "Cock on a Stick" things, or are they not PC these days? Not that my mum would ever buy me one - and if I got candy floss I was very lucky!

One of these years I'll have to get Mary over there for Goose Fair. After exposing her to the panto at the Theatre Royal last Christmas, I think she is ready for the next step in her gradual "Nottinghamisation"!

!englandflag!

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Good on ya Eric, Don't forget the 'mint sauce and Mushy Peas' Thats the way round I like to them .ie some peas with my mint sauce

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There haven’t been many years I have missed the fair but this year is one of them.

My first recollections of Goose Fair were of walking onto the fair from the top end, where the tram merges now to go down the hill, on a cold and damp night with both of my parents in tow. I would name the streets but I can’t be bothered to get me A to Z out.

Never was one for going on things apart from the cape walk, if that’s the way one spells it, my dad would always trust his arm on the Coconut shy while I would be feeding me face with a candy floss twice my size, not like the ones of today in a plastic bag, cotton candy for our over seas readers.

If ever I got tired of walking me dad would pick me up and carry me on his shoulders, which had the advantage of giving one a superior view of the myriad of stalls there seemed to be. . It was a good advantage point too to have if my dad and mum walked around to the boxing booths, looking over the many heads gave one the feeling of being on the stage with the MC.

Smoke and steam belched from the traction engines that at that time generated the power to run most things and on some occasions threatened to choke one.

The last time I visited the goose fair I was very disappointed, a lot of what I remembered as a child was gone, all there is now are giant rides of which you pay a small fortune to ride on, burger bars. Hook a duck stalls, bingo stalls, balloon sellers who charge you an arm and a leg for a plastic stay aloft balloon which by the time you get it home, that’s if you do, will be struggling to stay aloft and by the morning will be brushing the floor with it’s string.

Those fortunetellers who have never seen the inside of a real Gypsy’s caravan, every one of them claiming they can tell you what is ahead of one, ask any of them to predict the winning lottery numbers for next week and one will be disappointed.

It’s got to that point now that once you been to one fair you have been to them all, even the mushy peas have been watered down much like the fair itself.

Bip.

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Over 40 years since I last went to GF. Last time was with me mates on a pub crawl, many a pub on Radford road took our money for a great pint of bitter.

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You jogged some memories there Den

We used to catch two buses to get there to meet my dad at the top of Hartley road (If you remember he worked at Players) All four of us (Mum ,Dad, my sister and I )entering the fair via the top driveway to pass the pleathora of stalls selling the usual old tat, the bow and arrow, the Robin hood hat and the 8ft long balloons that you couldn,t blow up,it seemed to take forever to walk that short way with the anxiety and trepedation building up inside you.

The smells are starting to permitate through my usual October cold and the scarf I am wearing, onions,peas,hot dogs and bergers to name but a few.

Then the large gap into the fair proper, and the sound and light display of the two big wheels at the top of that said gap tugging on my dads sleeve and begging him to take me on the 'dive bombers', " when you are a bit bigger" he would say and bless him he took me on when I was a few years older. Then I would tug at my mum to take us on the 'Waltzer' she would always oblige ,(secretly I think she loved it too)

Then it was up on to my dads shoulders as I was flagging ,only to be brought back to conciouseness by the rumble of motor bikes from the wall of death and then the smell of the old two stroke fuel burning away ,then it was inside to wait for what seemed like an age whilst they were trying to lure more people inside to observe the death defying antics of the men and their machines ,I remember one year being in there when a fellow by the name of 'Tiny Tim' went round on a push bike, honest!!!!!!!

Back outside to find my mum and sister who had probably been on 'The Waltzer' again or 'Monty and Winny' those giant 'steam yachts' and on for more treats, a toffee apple maybe or some candy floss then it was back up on to my dads' shoulders for the long walk to the Mansfield road exit half asleep but still buzzing from all the smells ,sights and sounds that had been jolting my senses for the last couple of hours.

A last look back over my shoulder and it was good bye Goose Fair for another year, as we proceeded down Mansfield road to catch the '39' to Carlton square and on to bed ,to dream of being a wall of death rider or perhaps one of those men who climbed on the back of your 'Dodgem' or walked around on 'The Waltzer' spinning the squeeling girls faster and faster ,until they were wetting their knickers

One final thought. One year (Probably 67, the year my brother was born in mid October) my dad offered my sister and I "Ten bob apiece" not to go to the fair that year,we were more than likely feeling the pinch with a new mouth to feed on the way,and my father was the bread winner as was the case in those far off heady days. I bought a bow and arrow, and a toffee apple with mine a bit ironic I suppose but those were the days.

Like I said thanks for the memory Den.A few tears in my eyes as I remembered my dad then

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WOW, Beefy - that says it all - EXACTLY my memories!

Thanks - I owe you a pint!

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the rumble of motor bikes from the wall of death and then the smell of the old two stroke fuel burning away ,then it was inside to wait for what seemed like an age whilst they were trying to lure more people inside to observe the death defying antics of the men and their machines ,I remember one year being in there when a fellow by the name of 'Tiny Tim' went round on a push bike, honest!!!!!!!

Here's a clip i took @ this years fair , i told my lad that i have seen it done on a push bike he didn't believe me ?

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Great video and pics. Red - thank you!

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  • 1 month later...
OK - i'm confues - isn't goose fair on Forest fields any more?

Cheers,

Charlie

Don’t worry about it Charlie most topics go off thread slightly.

And Stu is right the Nottingham Goose Fair is still held on the Forest recreational ground, but these days it looks more like a car park than a place for recreational pursuits.

I have fond memories of the recreational ground; I once took a girl from work there for a kiss and cuddle, I would be only sixteen.

While walking her back to our respective bus stops I happen to bump into one of my girlfriend’s mates, she said at the time that she wouldn’t tell my regular girlfriend that she had seen me with another woman, needless to say the next day my girlfriend dumped me, we broke up for several weeks and then we got back together again, I went on to marry her seven years later.

I sometimes think whatever happened to that girl I took on the Forest recreational ground that night, I could tell you more about that night but I reckon our head Admin would have something to say, it’s rather rude and not something for those with a heart condition, it's even dangerous for me to even think about that night

Bip.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 1 year later...

I haven't been to Goose Fair for years. My pal from Grantham came down to see me on Monday and reckoned that it now carried on into Sunday night, is this true.

Are all the side shows still there, boxing ring and wall of death,(Health and Safety), flea circus and mouse town (Animal Rights), the worlds tallest man (Heightism), Gypsy fortune tellers (Racial Discrimination).

Then we have pick a duck and win a prize (Betting Acts) or the fabulous whelk stalls (Food and Hygene Acts).

Then of course all the rides ( Health and Safety again).

I'm surprised it's allowed to continue, can't have people having fun in case of litigation can we.

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I havent been to Goose Fair since my twins were born and we couldnt get a twin pushchair round the fairgrounds. I might go this year, purely to photograph it (will my camera get nicked?) and some mushy peas :) but to go on the rides... no-way am I paying for those!

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We hadnt been for many years....went last year...wont be going again...all the sideshows have gone....its all just HUGE plastic rides now...and the whole thing is on carpet.......Just doesnt have the appeal it used to have....We were sat in a Huge tent in the middle of it having a coffee.....( dont even sound like goose fair when you look at it like that. )

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