Carters Steam Fair – Rides and Attractions
We operate and maintain a large collection of vintage rides and sidestalls, ranging in date from the late 1890s to the 1960s, and every season we travel them with vintage heavy lorries and traditional showman’s living wagons.
Everything at the fair has been restored to it’s former glory using traditional signwriting techniques.
If you’re planning a visit to the fair during our final tour in 2022 then our visit page has lots of useful information. If you want to hire a ride or organise a film and video shoot at the fair, please see our hire page for more information.
Click on the pictures below to find out how many ride tokens you’ll need for each ride and details of it’s history and restoration.
The Rides
Our rides date from the 1890s to the 1960s and form an important part of our British social history. When a ride comes into our care, we research as much as we can and try to trace its ancestry. If we’re lucky, we can even find photos of it from its heyday.
Our team of skilled painters then work on restoring the ride back to its former glory using traditional techniques and making sure that everything is accurate to the era. The result is a set of beautiful fairground rides and attractions for the whole family to enjoy.
Games & Sidestalls
Whether its skill or luck, a ‘win’ at one of the sidestalls or games is something that has kept young and old entertained at the fair throughout the decades. Even in our digital age, children are still thrilled to test their skills on side stalls like the ‘hook a duck’.
As with our rides, each of these sidestalls have been faithfully restored. Because we are preserving social history, you might find some of the signs seem a little bit quirky today in our age of equality, (look out for the ‘ladies can stand here’ halfway marker on the coconut shy).
We think this adds to the distinct character of the games and we hope that you enjoy them with the spirit they were intended.
Vehicles
Our fair wouldn’t be complete without the vintage vehicles that we use to transport the rides and to pull the living wagons. Just like our rides, each one has been lovingly restored to its former glory and repainted in our Carters livery.
At some of our events we take these vehicles out on vintage road run around the local town.
Living Wagons
The original showmen would have lived in beautifully decorated living wagons with cut glass windows, lace curtains and premium wood and veneer inside.
Our wagons were either previously owned by showmen or circus owners and we have restored them in keeping with their traditional style, but with a few mod cons like central heating and a shower to suit the needs of a young family on the road.
