There's the Garden and Home Show, under new management, on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday at the Sportsground Park; they do charge to get in so that you can spend money, which I always find a little odd, but it might be worth a look. Then there's the Craft Show at Penshurst Place if you fancy a day out there in an idyllic setting, or you could even cycle over there on the Tonbridge-Penshurst cycle trail, mostly off road, if you're feeling more energetic. There'll be lots of men with long beards and unwashed hair, wearing jumpers made on their own pedal-knitting machines making wicker baskets and pots, and there's sure to be something of interest for the whole family if you like that sort of thing. Then, there's the Postcard collector's fair on Sunday at the Angel Centre from 10am to 4pm if you want to go and pay ten quid or more for an old photo of a long demolished Tonbridge shop or a macabre postcard of a mangled train wreck from the famous accident at the railway station in the steam days. Oh and my bookshop, Mr. Books will probably be open on Saturday and Sunday because there'll be so many people around I'd be a fool not to. I used to get paid by the Courier to write this kind of stuff! Looking forward to a nice sunny weekend, have fun at the fairs, or you could just stay in the garden....
10 comments:
Maybe you shouldn't have given up your Courier job. It can't have been that well paid.
Anon 2.22 you have not been paying attention! you will only start Tonbridgeblog off on one again.
I too can never people pay money just to visit what is a glorified garden centre. Maybe MR Books should charge an entry fee.
Does Tonbridgeblog often go off on one then Anon 5.29?
I wouldn't pay a pea to visit the garden show. I would probably visit and buy something if there wasn't an entry fee.
I am going to go to some of the school May Fairs that have free entry and super home grown plants and bric a brac to rummage around, home made cakes and proper prices.
Is Tonbridgeblog in the know to where the best ones are?
Anon 6:16 since you must be new here, Tonbridgeblog was paid a small fee by the Courier but when the crunch came they expected him to continue for free. But reading his blog he must still be buying/reading the Courier.
Anon: Check out the what's on? guide in the Courier if you want a social column! I haven't been "off on one" for a long while now. But, like Mount Vesuvius I can feel one bubbling up. So don't get me started on those Traffic Wardens/Parking Attendants/Civil Enforcement Officers/Gestapo stifling the trade in Tonbridge; or for that matter the Sovereign House and Church Tower developments by that "cancer curing" Pastor bloke. The total apathy of the people of Tonbrdige and the surrounding area about Book Fairs, cultural matters and anything that doesn't involve Barney, from kids TV, or Cheryl Baker coming to turn on the festival lights and Saving All her Kisses for me. Or landlords who are prepared to leave High Street shops empty and boarded up for years at a time rather than reduce their rents by £500 a year to sensible levels. Or traffic pollution, or why they don't have a traditional market in the old part of town, where's there's been one for over a thousand years except for the last six years. Just don't get me started!!..
And as for charging to shop at Mr. Books bookshop. Not a bad thought!
I wouldn't pay either to go into the Garden Show. Quite a few people seem to be doing so though when I cycled past earlier today. Must have more money than sense. Why pay for the dubious priveledge of buying things that you could get in a garden centre, or B&Q for that matter?
To be honest this garden show is a complete waste of time. I work for a retailer in the High Street and are sales were down today because everbody was at this garden show. It probably had an effect on all the retailers in the High Street not just us. I think it is a complete waste of time + money to pay just to look at some garden furniture, just go to B&Q, Homebase, Poundstrecther or Robert Dyas to get garden furniture from at least they wont charge you to get in + plus it will be cheaper!!!!
Idiotic it might be to pay to go to the garden fair, it's nice for Tonbridge to be able to offer something that's different to the rest of the faceless high streets in market towns across the country. I hope it's a success just so we can have at least one thing that makes us a bit different from the rest.
Anonymouse says ...
... I agree Tonbridge needs something to make it different but I doubt this annual garden show will be the event to help it rise above the rest. Maybe in a different form or in a different venue.
I would like to see an annual May Day Festival over the 3 days with stalls situated around the castle and each day with a slightly different theme. For instance. a farmers market one day - a truly large one with not just local produce - maybe combining with a german and french one - with lots to eat and drink and taste, a garden fair the next day and maybe a May Fair with the local community contributing with Maypole dancing and traditional fayres. The scarecrow trail could go ahead as I am sure it will grow year by year - the kids love it.
It's just that dreadful garden fair - it's so uninviting.
Surely people in the know could organise something.
Come on Tonbridgeblog you seem to know and have connections with all the Townspeople in the right places. Why don't you come up with something. I am sure you would find plenty of support.
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