Sunday April 10 sees the re-opening of Dingles Fairground Museum, operated by the conservation charity The Fairground Heritage Trust.
Forced to close in February 2020 as the pandemic took hold, a further setback occurred when our landlord placed the freehold of the site on the market.
Our proposed new Museum Gallery building remains unfished and we hope to open that in June.
While many charitable trusts would have walked away from such difficulties, our core of a dozen or so volunteers led by the Trustees remained undaunted and have given up every weekend to move from one site to another and get the working exhibits ready for opening.
It costs many thousands of pounds to insure, test and renovate vintage fairground rides which, of course, adhere to the same stringent safety standards as modern equipment.
We are very proud to present the National Fairground Collection of working rides, games and the largest collection of Fairground Art in the Country. Stunning public works of art, ranging from the show fronts of Boxing Booths, Ghost Trains and Shooting Galleries to carved and gilded panels.
Our historic rides include the largest Dodgem track to ever travel, the 1920 ‘Victory ‘Galloping Horse roundabout, the only surviving Moonrocket, the Thriller of the 30’s ,The Noah’s, Ark( or Motorcycle Speedway) four vintage children’s roundabouts , all hand crafted with no fibre glass in sight.
Our Arcade boasts slot machines from the 30s through to the 80’s. Mostly working on the modest outlay of 2p.
Our Ghost Train was made in 1946 and the first to be decorated by the famous fairground art firm of Hall & Fowle, being a museum, we even have the original drawings from the artist.
The museum, just a mile off the A30, is all undercover, on one level and car parking remains free.