The Way we used to Live

The house with the blue door in this picture is where we used to live until I was thrown out (although we used to have a nice red front door, with a big brass lion as knocker that somebody stole). Slightly to the left of the house, you see a Ghost Train, while to the right is a Bucking Bronco device. The green lorry you see is one of many that contain powerful generators for the rides, and it will belch diesel fumes into the house. The noise inside will be horrendous. The St Giles' Fair is here!

One of the nice features of not living in this listed centre-of-town house is that we are no longer troubled by ghosts and broncos, and whirling rides that whip up screams from teenagers as they are transported past our top windows.

This is the scene in front of the house on the Sunday afternoon, when the fair is (fairly) dormant. The Ghost Train is the green object towards the end on the left, and you can just see the Broncos beyond it. The helter-skelter is a much nicer and quieter ride from an earlier time. It's a bit surprising that it survives in the face of the competition.

It's not like this every day ... Each year, our city suffers the St Giles' Fair, held from medieval times in one of the main thoroughfares. But instead of sheep and cattle, these days there are scary and less-scary rides, and amplified canvassing of customers .. and sickly smells of onions frying in rancid oil, and candy floss, and you know it all.

This fair takes place on "the first Monday and Tuesday after the first Sunday in September", which makes it now in 2012. In the past, the fairground people brought in their trucks and rides late on the Saturday, and set them up (and tested them) throughout the night. Now, they are not allowed to start work until 6 am.

Monday and Tuesday during the day provide a cacophony of sound, and milling hordes of people. Then Tuesday night sees the dismantling of everything, and the eventual departure throughout the night of the lorries.

BUT, the Sunday night is one of the most peaceful of the year on the street. The fair people finish their testing in the early evening. There's a church service by an old-fashioned merry-go-round, with hymn tunes played on its organ as the coded paper passes through. The public disperses, and the staff go early to bed in their caravans, campers, or whatever. There is no traffic in the street, and no loud revellers coming out of hostelries late at night.

The show people are not masters of spelling it seems! Here is a warning notice on the Bronco ride. How many mistakes can you spot?