A vintage steam fair featuring some of the world's oldest fairground rides has arrived at a Shropshire country park.
Residents from across the county are being welcomed to the Lakins Steam Fair at Attingham Park, near Shrewsbury, over the May half-term holiday where they can enjoy a variety of several classic attractions.
Residents from across the county are being welcomed to the Lakins Steam Fair at Attingham Park, near Shrewsbury, over the May half-term holiday where they can enjoy a variety of several classic attractions.
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00:00Hello I'm Nick and I'm the Visitor Operations and Experience Manager here at Attingham Park in
00:10Shrewsbury. We're really really thrilled to have RJ Lakin come and visit us for the first time here
00:16at Attingham. They are specialists in vintage fairs which is really exciting you might have
00:21seen them at some other places locally such as Bliss Hill but yeah we're really excited to have
00:26them here at Attingham for the first time. So this space is the west side of the mansion so you'll
00:32be able to see the mansion just behind me and this area was traditionally used for entertaining so
00:38particularly the 8th Lady Berrett Teresa she had plenty of different things going on here as well
00:44as in the college year so we've also got photographs showing Mayfairs in this space so you know we're
00:49really excited to have the vintage fair here and to sort of bring some of that. So we're here at
00:54Attingham Park in Shrewsbury and a fixture not normally seen on the lawns what's going on it's
00:59your fault isn't it Ryan? It's all to do with us I'm afraid yeah yeah so we're putting on a
01:04amazing vintage fairground for the May half term. Awesome work so it's yourself Ryan and who's your
01:10colleague there? This is Harry here so it's the two of us and I can't I mean are you winding me up have
01:15the two of you set this up? We have we have yeah we've literally set every last piece of it up between
01:21us. I mean it's it's hard work isn't it? It certainly is. Yeah yeah so it's you come under
01:26the banner Lakin. Yes. And you're I've not I'm just familiarizing myself with Lakin but you're
01:33actually a Shropshire based Ironbridge. Yeah we are yeah we are we do a lot of work with museums
01:38and we're very you know really excited now to be working with the National Trust
01:42um but we we do do a few shows and different pieces but we we tend to just do our own thing really.
01:46And you're quite often working down the south of the country aren't you is that right? We we do do
01:50bits down south as well um yeah which we tend to travel about but we we these days we're sort of
01:54trying to keep as low as we can do really. Yeah yeah and how many rides do you own then under
02:00the Lakin's kind of fairground? Um four or five I think we've got four or five big machines yeah and
02:07we've got a couple of them here today that we're presenting for this period and we've got a few more
02:12that we that we take out to different places. And this is rather special we're on an older
02:16Dodgems bumper cars uh just tell us a little bit about this particular ride that you've got here.
02:22So so this particular one was was manufactured by RJ Lakin and Company Limited uh in 1936
02:28and it's it's without doubt the most original uh example of a of a Dodgem ride and the oldest
02:34traveling example left now um so it's quite a unique thing for people to come and come and experience.
02:39Yeah and in the background there what have we got over there? That is a set of steam yachts.
02:44Yeah. So that is the original the original Victorian thrill ride that is. So that was uh made in 1921
02:50but the steam engine that's powering it in the middle is actually 20 years older. It came out
02:53of an older ride and that's 1901. So 124 years old and still earning it's still earning its keep.
02:59Great I mean I've seen a a similar ish ride at the Landorno Victorian event but it certainly wasn't
03:05powered by a traction engine like that. No that's that was that that's an electric example so so
03:10very you know similarized but just electric powered and this this one's steamed. Yeah very unique.
03:15It's fantastic and um is it easy getting your hands on the coal to keep that one going? Not not
03:20these days not these days no it's definitely getting definitely getting more and more difficult and
03:24um we we we have to use the smokeless smokeless coals now yeah but even that's getting yeah getting
03:30it's hard as a source. Yeah and it's beautifully painted isn't it? Yeah every every last every
03:35last piece and component of it it's all it's all hand decorated hand painted um and again it's you
03:40know it's getting very difficult now to sort of find those find those skills and keep that sort of
03:44thing alive so. And we've got the Britannia and the Columbia we'll just flash up um at the end of the
03:48video there's a lovely Union Jack under the one and we've got the American flag and that's because at the
03:53time of that being built it was a big competition wasn't it between those two boats of that name? So they were named after
03:58sort of famous uh racing uh sailing yachts at the time um so that that was a sort of big thing then
04:04it was so they were the two sort of almost ones in that period. Yeah and after your you've done your
04:10stint here at Attingham where you're off to got anything else we can kind of give a shout out to
04:14at the minute? Um oh yeah we've got a few little we've got a few little places nothing but we've got a few
04:20places that we're going haven't confirmed those yet but we we'll be back at uh Blissdale Victorian
04:23town for the summer holidays. Oh awesome work. So we can see us there. And are you kind of if people
04:28want to find out more about yourself Lakings and and your rides are you kind of are you on? We we
04:33have got we've got a website uh which which is just in the middle of being updated at the minute but
04:38you can sort of come and have a look at that hopefully in the coming weeks and we've got a Facebook
04:41page as well which again we're just in the middle of updating and and getting all that getting all that
04:46ready. Right I'm going to put you on the spot now so why is it important that we preserve these old
04:52rides and um and keep these going? Why you know why don't we just be in them and get some of them
04:57fast electric flashing light things go on? So I so I think I think to us the most important thing is
05:05sort of preserving all of the artwork and all the history that goes with it it's all the sort of social
05:09history it is such an important part of people's lives uh it was the first time that people would
05:14have seen all the color and the electricity and all the light bulbs um so it really was something
05:19very special there was there was you know there was sort of very little full of entertainment back
05:23then it's something that people really look forward to every year coming to their local town and villages
05:27yeah and I think for us as opposed to the you know a lot of the modern fairgrounds these are very
05:31sort of warm and inviting all the music we play sort of 1930s and 40s music yeah and so it's just a
05:37really you know really exciting and sort of family friendly definitely just full of charm aren't they it's
05:43nice there's not many most antiques coming at you know you sit them on a shelf and you look at them
05:49and that can be quite pleasant but isn't it nice to have antiques that you can still bring your kids
05:54down and kind of you know what I mean have some family fun that's what really you know it's really
05:58nice to be able to give people the opportunity to actually come and have a go and have a ride and
06:01sort of experience experience all the history definitely