A message from fairground owner Joby Carter:
In April 2022, we announced the final tour of our unique collection of vintage fairground rides. Since then, we’ve done everything we can to raise awareness of the sale of the fair and have spoken to relevant individuals involved with heritage and the arts, government representatives, national organisations and potential investors. Our goal was to find a new permanent home for the complete collection. Sadly, this has not been possible, and we have exhausted all options trying to find a buyer for the fair as a whole.
Our rare vintage ride collection spans over 70 years of British fairground history and fairground art from 1895 to 1965, all of which we’ve preserved and maintained in immaculate working order for everyone to enjoy. As private keepers of heritage, we have invested thousands of hours over the years to ensure that these rides could be enjoyed by so many. We have spared no expense on restoring these rides to the condition they once were when they were new, even painting by hand and using real gold leaf. Our fairground rides have featured in blockbuster movies such as Paddington 2 and Rocketman and primetime TV shows including Worzel Gummidge and Call the Midwife.
Unique opportunity to buy the rides
The discussions over the last 18 months have highlighted that there is plenty of demand for our beautiful vintage rides, but that organisations and prospective buyers would prefer to buy the selective rides individually. We are now embarking on the next phase which is to find new homes for each of the rides and our vintage vehicles.
Earlier this year, the Hyman’s (who used to tour with us) took residency in the Black Country Living Museum and bought our Chair O Plane ride. Having visited the museum in the summer I couldn’t be happier to see our ride in operation with such a great heritage backdrop, thrilling and entertaining new fans, just like it was designed to do.
Items for sale from our ride collection include our iconic set of beautifully restored British Galloper horses (British version of a carousel) dating from the 1890s and our stylish dodgem cars which featured in an art installation at Somerset House in London in 2021. Alongside the rides there are rare vintage vehicles which are used to pull and power the fair, all of which have been restored and painted by hand using traditional coach painting and signwriting techniques.
I know that our fans will be sad to see the collection broken up and we were humbled by the outpouring of support we had throughout our final 2022 tour. I’ve always said that I am merely a custodian of these heritage rides and if we need to find individual homes for their legacy to continue then it feels like the right thing to do.
The positive side of this is that the rides can now be experienced and enjoyed by an even wider audience geographically if they are bought by attractions in locations where we did not take our annual tour.
During October, we will be bringing the rides back out of storage and assembling them at our White Waltham headquarters to allow prospective buyers the opportunity to arrange a viewing and make an offer. Our rides are an incredible asset for any museum or visitor attraction. We’re popular with all generations including grandparents who bring along their families, parents with children of all ages and our rides are loved by a younger audience – there are 3 million uses of the hashtag #cartersteamfair on TikTok!
Find out more
If you are interested in owning any of our rides or vintage transport, we encourage you to get in touch as soon as possible and to view the brochure on our Sale of Fair page. We have some potential buyers interested in making an offer on their preferred rides before we build up the whole collection so please contact us as soon as possible to avoid missing out. There is a guide price for each ride and vehicle and we are open to sensible offers: a good home might sway the decision as to who it is sold to.
Please get in touch with us here if you are considering buying one of our rides and would like to arrange a viewing.
On Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 October we will be holding a public open day for anyone to visit the yard. You can find out more on our Open Weekend page. There will be the opportunity to take photos of the remaining rides that we have built up and we will be selling off any remaining merchandise, signs and uniform. A huge thank you to everyone that has supported us on this journey.
There will never be another sale quite like this one, I look forward to seeing you there.
Thank you, from Joby Carter.
