• Make a contribution
  • Get the Print Edition
  • Sign up for our daily newsletter
Sunday, July 27, 2025
  • Login
Reading Today Online
  • HOME
  • YOUR AREA
    • All
    • Caversham
    • Central Reading
    • East Reading
    • Katesgrove
    • Reading
    • Southcote & Coley
    • Tilehurst & Norcot
    • Whitley

    Caversham woman charged in connection with robbery and kidnap incident

    Me2Club urgently appeals for support to continue

    Changes made to Reading council tenancies for first time in nearly 10 years

    Restaurant closed for 7 years to be turned into bar and eatery

    PRIDE OF READING AWARDS: Derry raises awareness of Reading’s good people

    PRIDE OF READING AWARDS: Derry raises awareness of Reading’s good people

    PRIDE OF READING AWARDS: Meet the sponsors – Kingdom Rooms

    PRIDE OF READING AWARDS: Meet the sponsors – Kingdom Rooms

    FROM THE LEADER: New Studio Theatre at the Hexagon

    PCC allocates nearly £2M in Home Office funding to counter serious violence in Thames Valley

    The Barberettes Shine at International Choir Competition in Europe

  • COMMUNITY
  • READING FC
  • SPORT
    • All
    • Basketball
    • Football
    • Rugby

    Reading FC star Knibbs set to make Championship move as fee is agreed

    Reading FC confirm new signing as midfielder joins on permanent deal

    Former Reading FC loanee joins rivals

    Reading FC sign German attacker on permanent deal

    Reading and Chelsea legend Kerry Dixon set for Q&A at Purple Turtle

    Ex-Reading star Ejaria on trial with former Royals manager

    League One side set to win race for former Reading FC young star

    Reading FC opinion: Where are the goals coming from this season?

    Reading FC midfielder Knibbs linked with Championship move

  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • ARTS
    • READING FESTIVAL
    • READING PRIDE
    • WOKINGHAM FESTIVAL
  • PRIDE OF READING
  • OBITUARIES
  • JOBS
  • ADVERTISE
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Reading Today Online
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

SPACEPHILLER: Carters, the stoppable fair machine

Phil Creighton by Phil Creighton
Saturday, October 22, 2022 6:31 am
in Featured, Opinion
A A
Carters Steam Fair will return to Reading's Prospect Park for its big finale. It is led by Joby Carter Picture: Dijana Capan/Dvision Imahes

Carters Steam Fair will return to Reading's Prospect Park for its big finale. It is led by Joby Carter Picture: Dijana Capan/Dvision Imahes

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

By Phil Creighton

CARTERS Steam Fair has chosen to make Reading its final destination.

The touring attraction, featuring vintage fairground rides, is about to go round the merry-go-round one last time.

Currently situated in Prospect Park, the waltzers will have their last waltz on Sunday, October 30.

It ends a long and distinguished history, but also marks the start of a new chapter for the fair’s master of ceremonies, Joby Carter. He inherited the fair from his parents, and has been on the road ever since.

Carters has always been special for me.

Related posts

Caversham woman charged in connection with robbery and kidnap incident

Me2Club urgently appeals for support to continue

Changes made to Reading council tenancies for first time in nearly 10 years

Restaurant closed for 7 years to be turned into bar and eatery

This following memory is from the time when everything was made in black and white, and it was silent, bar a pianist following you around playing appropriate music. Any conversation would involve cards coming up covering the screen, making talking very stilted.

Thank goodness for Technicolor and talkies.

Anyway, this was my first term at Reading University, getting to know people and the town.

My very first Sunday, I was taken by car to a church off the Oxford Road. Not having enjoyed the experience – they don’t approve of women in the pulpit – I decided to walk back to halls of residence, near Whiteknights itself.

Great idea, but this was years before sat navs, smartphones or even mobile phones. If you wanted to know your way around, you had to take an A to Z with you (remember those?) and look for every inch the lost tourist.

Navigating Broad Street was easy enough. But when I hit Cemetery Junction, I realised I’d made a mistake. Likewise, when I walked past the hospital for the second time.

It took a couple of hours to do a 40-minute walk. Still, never made that mistake again.

Anyway, three weekends in, getting to know some people, and Palmer Park was the venue for a night at Carters Steam Fair.

Coming from the middle of nowhere, where you had to make your own entertainment out of vinegar and brown paper, this was quite something. A whole fair, just like the one in the movies – because it was the one in the movies – and on our doorstep.

Cue candy floss, penny arcades, and some romantic walks through the candlelight.

Flash forwards some years, and Carters is back in Palmer Park after some years away due to something to do with holes appearing in the fields, and there is now a small person biting my ankles (yes, it hurt).

A visit to Carters was just the thing. They loved it, especially the helter skelter. So much so that there were many, many, many goes on it that day and, every time, my heart was in my mouth as I worried about whether they would be safe climbing up the stairs and coming down.

But that’s the fun of the fair.

It’s not just a collection of vintage rides. It’s a memory maker.

And one of the most special kinds you will ever find.

Being steam powered, there’s a strong smell that lingers at the back of the throat and the memory. It’s evocative, and marvellous.

The penny arcade, which popped up every now and then, is a special place where only pennies the size of toffee pennies – so that’s how they got their name – fitted.

And the rides – oh the rides, a wonderful collection of this and that, all set to music and beautifully lit at night. Cared for by Joby and his team, and lavishly painted.

We will, like so many of us, be visiting Palmer Park between now and closing date. It just so happens that my 184th birthday is fireworks night. So, one more memory to be made, one more inhalation of the smoke, and one more night of magic.

Can’t wait, but I wish it weren’t so.

Keep up to date by signing up for our daily newsletter

We don’t spam we only send our newsletter to people who have requested it.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Previous Post

Police Have Your Say meeting for East Reading residents

Next Post

Theresa May rules herself out of standing for prime minister: ‘I’ve been there, done that’

FOLLOW US

POPULAR STORIES

  • Former Reading FC striker Andy Carroll joins new club in England after leaving France

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Reading FC star Knibbs set to make Championship move as fee is agreed

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 47-year-old woman arrested after two pedestrians die in road traffic collision in Caversham

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Masked men armed with weapons rob store in Reading

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • League One side set to win race for former Reading FC young star

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

RDG.Today – which is a Social Enterprise – provides Reading Borough with free, independent news coverage.

If you are able, please support our work

Click Here to Support RDG.Today

ABOUT US

Reading Today is dedicated to providing news online across the whole of the Borough of Reading. It is a Social Enterprise, existing to support the various communities in Reading Borough.

CONTACT US

news@wokinghampaper.co.uk

Reading Today Logo

Keep up to date with our daily newsletter

We don’t spam we only send our newsletter to people that have subscribed

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

The Wokingham Paper Ltd publications are regulated by IPSO – the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
If you have a complaint about a  The Wokingham Paper Ltd  publication in print or online, you should, in the first instance, contact the publication concerned, email: editor@wokingham.today, or telephone: 0118 327 2662. If it is not resolved to your satisfaction, you should contact IPSO by telephone: 0300 123 2220, or visit its website: www.ipso.co.uk. Members of the public are welcome to contact IPSO at any time if they are not sure how to proceed, or need advice on how to frame a complaint.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • MY AREA
    • Central Reading
    • East Reading
    • Bracknell
    • Calcot
    • Caversham
    • Crowthorne
    • Earley
  • COMMUNITY
  • SPORT
    • Reading FC
    • Football
    • Rugby
    • Basketball
  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • ARTS
    • READING FESTIVAL
    • READING PRIDE
    • WOKINGHAM FESTIVAL
  • PRIDE OF READING
  • OBITUARIES
  • JOBS
  • ADVERTISE
  • CONTACT US
  • SUPPORT US
  • SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
  • WHERE TO GET THE PRINT EDITION

© 2021 - The Wokingham Paper Ltd - All Right Reserved.