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It used to be eight days, then three days, and it's now four. The council, desperate as ever to screw the public proposed fencing the fair and charging an entrance fee. Apparently the showmen rejected the idea, but it wouldn't surprise me to find the council have their way.

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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

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 too much to drink, so being from Nottingham and Goose fair being on the forest, decided to go. Come on girls lets all go on the big wheel,  the chair me and my sister in law were in had stopped at the top!! Oh! said my sister in law  I don't feel very well and with that she leaned over the side, well I won't go into detals we climbed off the wheel and did not say a word. Right ladies next cakewalk well there was about 20 of us and you should have seen the sights, most of us fell down, and a few others were not to  well but laugh we laughed and laughed, that night i think all of us went home with wet pants be cause we just could not stop laughing. Those were the days.

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Don't think so Ian age won't let me.  Hearts willing but my body says no!

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  • 3 months later...
On 10/5/2015 at 2:40 AM, Blondie said:

Was away last week, but got to see the Goose Fair this evening for a while, just had a walk around and soaked up the atmosphere, I have always loved it..............People come on trips from all over everywhere to spend time here, we are lucky to have such an event here in Nottingham..........

How many of us used to go down to the goose fair site as kids when they cleared off ? Looking for dropped pennies and coconuts , or any other treasure you could find , me and my brother did , we'd walk there from the old st ann well area.

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Hook a duck , to be honest that's the only bit of fishing I've ever done in my whole  life, except for catching sticklebacks and gudjeon down the river trent !

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Now the kids go round Donington Park after the rock concert and collect all the decent abandoned tents and sell them on  eBay 

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  • 2 months later...

Well it's nearly time again !!!!!

 

GOOSE FAIR 

IT's JUST AROUND THE CORNER

 

What are your Memories of the fair?

It was alway's on the first Thursday in October,

It is/was a Nottingham Tradition.

 

My memories   as we did not live far away from the Forest we found it easier to walk than catch a bus.

When just a younster My uncle Jim who was not married would give my brother and myself 10/-  10bob as we walked down Mansfield Rd and on to the long path down to the roundabouts it was magical.    As the long path was full of storea selling every-thing a girl and boy wanted'.  One year i brought a bridal  doll for 10/6 had to return home skint.  Getting older my friends  and I would go down every night before it was open.   WHY?? 

Well at the age we were we had to find out what talent was out there ans what we were missing. The thing that i never did see (untii much later)  was !!!!!

I AM THE  MAYOR  WHO OPENS THIS FAIR FOR THREE DAY'S and THREE DAY'S ONLY.   

 

watdh this space for another great chapter 

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Next Chapter  

My friends and I would allways make our way to the Waltzer as the young men who worked on them would allway give the car an exter whril, but getting of the ride one day, we saw a young lady who had been on those Swing Boats fall down all the steps. This put me and my friends off going on them.

watch this space.

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3rd chapter 

 Mum and Dad had been on holiday years ago and made friends with a couple and there daughters, every year after that they came and stayed with us so they could go to the fair, they were from Huddesfield,

When Master and I decided to marry what date should it be well why break with tradition lets makeb it Goose Fair Saturday.  Friday night before wedding day, yes we went to the Fair.

See early post.

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Last chapter 

 

Well I always said that I wanted to see the mayor open the fair?

 

When I had my 2 boys only 8 months apart or some were near there, I had youngest in the pram and the eldest sitting on the parm seat. walked all the way to the fair, and YES !!! I Saw the Lord Mayor open the fair For 3 Days and 3 Days only.

 

End of My Goose Fair Story's 

 

ps Now what have they done Yes Goose Fair now goe's on for a week, umm! not quite what it use to be.

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Mary, I and my friends used to go straight to the Waltzer  just like you and for the same reason!!!

Your boys are only 8 months apart?  I thought I was bad enough having 3 children in 3 and a quarter years 

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1975 and a group of us from school all went down to Goose Fair together late on the Saturday afternoon. We got off the bus from Arnold after Forest Road and walked back down Mansfield Road and on to the fair taking in the sights, noise and smells surrounding us, talking animatedly about what we were going on first. We got to the first ride, a waltzer, and started to walk up the steps  eager to get on, when Steff, my best friend and later best man, said "I need to get some money out" bending over and proceeding to unlace and take off his Doc Marten. Now Steff was always careful with his money, in every sense of the word, and had decided that for security he'd keep all his notes in his boot! All night he would only remove one pound at a time and wouldn't hand it over on a ride, in case he didn't get change, or the right change and he'd then want to wander around trying to get change from a stall.....unbelievable!!! As you can no doubt guess it led to quite a frustrating sloooow evening 

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When I was 15 or 16 years my friends and I wanted to be at the Fair as it closed on the Saturday night and another friend who lived up Sherwood Rise said we could stay at her house. So we hatched a plan to tell our parents we were staying at each other’s houses (Arnold and Mapperley) so they wouldn’t know we were out til gone midnight.  We watched the Fair close and walked up to ‘Deirdre’s’ house, an impressively large property and nothing like the houses we lived in.  We all sat chatting away and then Deirdre’s father walked into the sitting room in his vest and underpants.  He was a retired Army officer with a big booming voice and told us to get out the place immediately!  Well …… we couldn’t go home because we were supposed to be sleeping somewhere else, so we walked down Mansfield Road and went and sat outside The Beachcomber where an all-nighter was happening.  We hadn’t got enough money to get in so we huddled together by a vent which was reasonably warm and we could hear the music.  At a reasonable time next morning we caught our buses home and our parents never knew we’d been out all night!  

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Nice-one LizzyieM you can get some very cold in Oct plus its nice to read that our group of girls were not the only trouble maker's around.

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Similar story Lizzie. A bunch of us girls who hung out in the clubhouse at the bowling alley, were invited to an all night party out Burton Joyce way. We all told our parents we were at one of our houses for the night. The party got going but the host and hostess had an argument and it was 'everybody out'. Now where do we go,  no buses running. Someone took pity on us, took us to his flat in the Meadows and all we girls squashed into 1 double bed. All I remember is a darn church bell chiming through the night.

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Bet there won’t be a ‘flea circus’

or a ‘Bearded Lady’. And wasn’t there something called ‘Mouse Town?”

Are any of you old enough to remember any of these weird attractions?

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Yes @MargieH I can remember all three of them. Can you remember Scotland's tallest man? He used to shake kid's hands then grimace as if the kid had the world's strongest grip and was crushing his hand, which was roughly the size of a JCB front bucket! Also the boxing booth, taking on all comers and the Wall of Death with their red Indian motorcycles 

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I do remember the wall of death - the walls used to shake as the motorbikes zoomed round.  
Thinking of a similar shape, is the  Rotor still around?  I went on that once and it was a strange feeling ‘sticking’ on the wall as it rotated.

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