June Boot, Craft and Produce Fair

There were about fifty Fuchsias which were all in bud or flower, hollyhocks, perennial wallflowers, foxgloves, geraniums, aquilegia, dianthus, achillea, lupins, geum, statice, helichrysum and many more.

The plants proved popular with over £500 being raised from the plant sales alone.

In addition to the plants on the Rotary stall, there were several other stalls at the Fair selling plants, be they tomato, pepper, strawberry plants or annuals such as petunias and some house plants.

The warm sun and blue sky attracted 83 stall holders as well as the burger and ice cream vans.  The West Martello Field was full with a good crowd attracted by the dry weather to peruse the various stalls.

All the stall holders seemed to be doing a good trade.

As well as the types of wares commonly found at Boot Fairs, clothes, toys, books, jigsaws, crockery, glass ware, preserves and greeting cards etc, there were some less usual items.  These included an Abooster Plus fitness machine, a satellite dish on a stand, a copy of the 1958 Royal Automobile Club Guide & Handbook, seventeen antique pocket watches (labelled as working), a long thin photograph dated 1958 of St Paul’s Junior School, Colet Court (Barnes SW London), a drum kit with five drums including the base and cymbals (sold for over £100), and a selection of decorated horseshoes.

One stall was selling a selection of oversized glass vases resulting from a clear out of a florists shop.

The standard of golf on the local courses does not seem to have improved much as there were a significant number of second hand golf balls for sale.

Surprisingly given that the Fair was on the first Sunday in June, there was a 7ft woodland pine Christmas tree for sale on one stall as well as several other stalls offering seasonal decorations for sale.

The sale of pre-loved goods on the Rotary stall was down by £125 from the previous Fair but this was because the tables on the stall were filled by plants grown by Rotarian Geoff Lowles.

As a result of the Fair over £900 in total was raised which will be used to support local charitable and international Rotary projects.