Running any business from a permament building is hard enough but please read till the end of this post to see what our showmen business men and women have to go through normally to open their businesses!!! Are you a Lover or a Hater of the Travelling Funfair that comes to your Town or Village once or twice a year (if you’re lucky)
THEN READ ON you might learn something
The People who Run / Oper
ate these Funfairs are know as “SHOWMEN”
(They are Not Travellers, nor are they Irish or Gypsy or Romany Travellers they are Showmen a recognised profession)
The Showmen are proud of there roots & there very long Histories and are hard working family people they are very self sufficient and have never been a burden on the public purse you don’t see members of these family claiming unemployment Benefit
They are all self employed and pay all there Taxes/Insurances that all self employed people do, they even pay via the Guild for a Licence to play music on there Rides (A Performing rights licence)
There are aprox 5000 Showmen’s Families (around 25000) people who Travel the UK on Established Routes and have done so for Generations carrying on the family business that the Fathers / Grandfather & Great Grandfathers started passing from Father to son and many are 5th / 6th Generation Showmen
98% of the Showmen in the UK (Normally the head of the family and there Sons when reaching the age of 21) who operate in the UK are Members of an organization called “The Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain”
The Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain (a recognised Trade Body) is over 100 year old
The Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain is split into 10 Sections covering the whole of the UK &NI
This organization is a regulatory body with Rules and a Code of Practices that all showmen have to follow and if they don’t they can go before there local Section Committee to be dealt with the Organization also protects the rights and interest of it members to carry out there way of life which is under treat
There are 2 types of Showmen there either a Lessee (the person who owns the rights to operator/Organise the fair or they are Tenants ( they can also be both some weeks running there own fairs and other week as a tenant at someone else fair
The Lessee pays rent to the Land Owner and the Tenants pay rent to the Lessee
Funfair’s are a Great British Tradition and have been operating for Generations some Major Funfairs in the UK have been operating for over 700 year evolving from trading Fairs to what they are today and are still extremely popular
Showmen’s Families live in Caravans some of these are very big luxury homes on wheels (Trailers or Wagons as there know to Showmen) during the Fairground Season, they all return to an Official Winter quarters (Yards as the there know to the Showmen) were they carry out the Annual maintenance and Independent Testing of the Fairground equipment these Showmen Yards are very much a part of the local Community were there children attend the local School etc they don’t just pull into a piece of land and camp there until the Fairground season starts again
The Showmen don’t just turn up unannounced to your town or village they have negotiated with the land owner and agree to pay them rent well in advance of there visit and normally at the same time of year for there Annual visit with full approval of the land Owners
If they are to operate on Grass they have to pay the land owner a bond to repair any damage due to the great British weather (which is not always great)
They have to follow all the rules the land owner place on them or they can’t operate
So if they have to Fence the fair in or Supply Toilets or Have to supply bins / skips for the Rubbish they have to do it
They have to leave any site they operate on in a clean and tidy condition is some cases they leave it in a better condition that when they arrived
They have to have permission to put up road side Posters and they have to be removed after the event has finished
They may if the site is near residential home have to close at certain times to keep the noise to a minimum and also have to turn there generator off at a reasonable hour not to upset the locals even if this means they have no power as all power used in there caravan they have to generate there not on the Mains Power
A little Known fact that the showmen of Great Britain Served there country in both the 1st & 2nd WW and the members who could not serve carried on during these period of history raising funds in the 1st WW to buy a fleet of Ambulances and in the 2ndWW raised funds and bought a Spitfire for the war effort named “ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR”
Even in these recent times during Covid the Showmen have supported the NHS, also collecting and donating food for the people in need
So please just remember before you call these people all the names under the sun for living in a caravan and arriving on your village green they are only carrying what they have done for Generations and that is to entertain the public with there fairground Amusements, yes there not everyone idea of a good time but many 1000’s of people go to the fair up and down this land every weekend well they did in normal times) and enjoy every minute of it, if you take the time to get to know these people you will find there just like the rest of us, Hard Working Family People they just live in Caravans and move from town to town
Don’t judge a book by its cover open up a few pages and get to know the FACTS
Thank you for your support, please let the show go on ���
