“Relive Grandma’s yesterdays” says a sign on the Steam Yachts, one of Carters iconic fairground attractions. And that’s exactly what families in London and South East England have been doing for the past 45 years at Carters Steam Fair – the world’s largest travelling vintage funfair.
“We’re popular with all generations,” says Joby Carter. “Including grandparents who bring along their families, parents with children of all ages, and a younger audience interested in the fair on social media.”
You know who’s running the show the moment you arrive at Carters thanks to the boldly lettered trucks that form a wall around the fair. This is showmanship at its finest, and no canvas is wasted. Like the rides inside, which date from 1895 to 1965, the transport is beautifully decorated.
A few other ingredients give the fair its unique atmosphere. There’s the vintage feel-good music. The fairground organ and toot of the steam engine on the Gallopers and Yachts. Then, as darkness falls, there’s the glow of the incandescent lightbulbs on each attraction.
“There is no other fair in the world like us,” says Joby. Now 47, he has run the show with his wife Georgina since 2015 but has been passionate about it all his life. “We’ve gained the skills to restore stuff to its fullest. The fair is like an art installation.“
Carters Steam Fair as a film star
Offering an authentic and hugely photogenic slice of nostalgia, Carters Steam Fair has been featured in many films, television programmes and advertising campaigns over the years. Two of its latest movie cameos were in Paddington 2 and Rocketman. And that was Carters masquerading at Peregrine’s Fair in an entire episode of BBC children’s drama Worzel Gummidge, screened last Christmas on British TV.
The 2022 season, which was set to finish at the end of October, has been one of the steam fair’s most successful ever. Alas, it was also the last, at least as a travelling show.
“I believe you should only ever do things to do the best standard,” says Joby. “We’ve reached the top, and I don’t want to be at the bottom where you start losing fights.”
Moving it all from town to town, week after week is not easy. “Physically, it’s a killer. It takes a solid 12 hours to pull this lot down every Sunday and Monday. You don’t want to race things and damage all the gold leaf, the carvings.”
It then takes Joby and his staff all week to build it up again, ready for the weekend.
The roots of Carters Steam Fair
Carters Steam Fair was founded in 1977 by John Carter, Joby’s father, one year after he bought and restored a set of Gallopers. The ride was built in the previous century by Robert Tidman & Sons of Norwich. Known elsewhere in the world as a carousel, English versions of the attraction are notable for featuring horses that gallop and turn in a clockwise rather than anticlockwise direction.
Steadily John and his wife Anna amassed a stable of attractions and built up a run of fairs in and around London, as well as winter quarters at White Waltham near Maidenhead in Berkshire. After being diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, John died in 2000 at the age of just 59. Anna then continued his legacy with the support of the couple’s children, Zed, Seth, Joby, Amber and Rosie.
Whereas most of the established players in the fairground business came (and still do) from several generations of travelling showmen, John was the son of a police sergeant. Prior to founding the steam fair, he promoted military shows, vehicle rallies and concerts. This outsider status gave him a fresh perspective.
“My dad taught me about poster design, and had gone to the Berkshire College of Art,” says Joby. “Most fairground posters are very generic, like someone’s puked up a load of stock pictures. There’s only so much you can read as you’re going down the road. We wanted something that kids could recognise even if they couldn’t read and write. They do, and it works.”
Nostalgia meets eCommerce
By putting on their own events in public parks and open spaces, Carters has been able to escape the silo of the steam rally and heritage circuit. In doing so, they cater to a wider thirst for all things vintage. Which other funfairs have generated over three million hashtags on TikTok?
“It’s incredible to think we have a global fanbase for our fair!” says Joby, who eschews and embraces modern technology in equal measure. “Although we are a traditional fair, we are quite forward-thinking. We do a lot on social media. We even built our own e-commerce system to sell ride tokens.”
Unable to travel Carters Steam Fair in 2020 due to lockdown, Joby Carter began streaming signwriting courses he previously delivered in person. Since the fair hit the road again in 2021, he’s also been giving behind-the-scenes tours.
“You get a following, and it makes you approachable. My three best years were the last three because I did something different. I realised I can make a healthy living out of a paintbrush. We also really kicked off the merchandise. Previously we did a little bit of merch, now it’s become a good part of the business.”
Work hard, work hard?
Yet the pandemic also gave Joby Carter a little leisure time:
“It showed me these things called weekends,” he says, recalling bike rides and birthday parties with his three children. “I’d become institutionalised. I will always be busy because I like being creative. But the fair owns me because of the travelling aspect of the business. I’m watching it all the time.”
In a statement put out on Facebook in Carters Steam Fair’s final few weeks on the road, Joby and Georgina Carter highlighted some of the other reasons they are calling it a day.
“The truth is it’s getting increasingly hard to travel vintage equipment using vintage vehicles in modern times. Unfortunately, the planning and logistics are becoming more expensive and complicated.”
Brexit has also had an effect on this very British attraction. ”I’ve always had about half my staff from overseas,” adds Joby. “I used to have six Romanians. I’ve got one now.”
Whilst his brother Seth still supports the fair with his coconut shy and sister Rosie her candyfloss/doughnuts, Joby says, “I’m such a bloody kingpin. Everyone works under me. They earn more than is normal on a fair, and they are all accommodated. But they do work hard.”
Do happy staff equal a happy atmosphere? “They enjoy what they’re doing, and that reflects on the public.”
Carters Steam Fair keeps the traditional skills (and thrills) alive
Both Joby Carter and his mother are keen practitioners of fairground art. Whilst Anna excels in figurative work (witness her beautiful animal scenes on the Galloper rounding boards), Joby’s forte is lettering. Together with Scarlett Rickard, who designs Carters Steam Fair’s posters, he wrote a book in lockdown entitled Signwriting Tips, Tricks and Inspiration. This has sold over 9,000 copies to date.
“Keeping those skills alive is really import to me,” says Joby, who will deliver more courses this winter. “When I teach, I don’t use a computer in any way, shape or form. I don’t use tape to mask the letters off. I teach people the way the Victorians did it. And people like that. They spend their life in front of computers.”
As well as the hand-painted whimsical slogans, there’s another sign on the handrails of Carters Steam Yachts. This one advises the 21st Century public how to ride an attraction originating from the 1920s.
“Don’t be fooled by its Edwardian elegance – this steam-powered white-knuckle ride makes grown men shriek!” we are told. “Although appearing sedate from the ground, it gives a kick.”
Meanwhile, on the fair’s website, visitors are informed that “The Steam Yachts (like all our rides) undergo rigorous modern safety checks and pass an ADIPS test by an independent body every year.”
Carters Steam Fair on a farewell tour
In addition to the Yachts and Gallopers, key attractions featured on the farewell tour included the Lighting Skid, Hurricane Jets, Octopus, Chair-O-Planes, and Kings of Rock ’n’ Roll Dodgems. But the fair would not be complete without its complement of children’s rides, traditional fairground games and food concessions.
At its peak, Carters Steam Fair visited between 25 and 30 places a year. The pandemic, plus rising fuel costs, encouraged the family to make longer stands. This past season they chose 15 locations, staying anywhere between one weekend and 16 days.
“We’ve seen an incredible number of visitors this year – loyal fans and new fans who have been gutted to only be discovering us for the first time!” say Joby and Georgina. “It really is incredible to hear how many lives we have been a part of over the last 45 years.”
The Home Counties – including Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Surrey and Hampshire – made up the lion’s share of the schedule in 2022. However, there were also visits to the royal spa town of Bath and, further north, Lichfield in Staffordshire. In addition, there have been guest appearances over the years at Alton Towers Resort, Hyde Park Winter Wonderland and Wookey Hole Caves.
Joby Carter finds his release
He may be a showman, and he’s not afraid to front a social media video or two, however it’s what happens behind the scenes of the fair that really makes Joby Carter tick. And this is what he’d like to spend more time doing now the show’s reached the end of the road.
“I don’t hate being open. But I like the bit where you shut up at night and put it all to bed. I like shunting the lorries, that’s like playing trains. However, I am at my happiest when I am painting and restoring things. There’s a lot of release in that.”
Surely with his skillset, he must have been offered a permanent position elsewhere in the leisure industry?
“The point is, that’s what I want to get away from! I’ve been asked to go abroad and teach, which I may do. Basically, I’m an entrepreneur and the world’s going to be my oyster. But I’m not going to be owned by the fair anymore.”
The next chapter for Carters Steam Fair
Forty-five years after John and Anna Carter first hit the road with the Gallopers, the tour is finally over for Carters Steam Fair. The final stand was in Reading, about 30 minutes from the family’s winter quarters. Or slightly longer in a vintage lorry.
Joby is keen the show should go on. Conversations are ongoing with a number of prospective buyers in the hope that this immaculate collection of working fairground artefacts can find a good home, possibly indoors.
“Once you go indoors, so many of your problems go away,” says the boss. “We want to find a way of preserving this legacy, whether that is by selling it to a new owner who can host it at their existing visitor attraction or by finding suitable land that can be developed into a new attraction.
“If we are to develop a new site, we need external help. We are experts at touring the fair, but we are not experts in buying and developing land and creating the infrastructure that a permanent visitor attraction needs.”
In the meantime, there are tentative plans to turn some of the living wagons (vintage caravans) into Airbnb accommodation. However, Joby wants to avoid selling rides and transport individually if he can help it.
“We want to keep it all together because it took a long time to put it together. We’ve got the brand. If you’ve got the site and the capital, this could really make a place.”
Images courtesy of Carters Steam Fair and Owen Ralph unless specified otherwise
