As the only Horsmonden tWIlite member, I had arranged to travel with Caroline, a member of Horsmonden morning WI. Our husbands helped us to get to (and be collected from) Pembury, where the coach met us, on Thursday 3rd September. We then travelled, with a few breaks at motorway services, to Harrogate, where we could spend about 1½ hours as we wished.
We decided to go and have tea at Betty’s, a famous tearoom. I had been to another one of those tearooms before, in York, and this one was just like that, a traditional tearoom with lots of tea varieties, coffees and scrumptious cakes ...
We had a wonderful tea and spend some time after that walking through a shopping street, but time for that was limited, because the coach was waiting to take us on to Leeds to our hotel, where we were to stay until Sunday. We were assigned to our rooms, there were some confusions with the lift, but we all managed to get ourselves settled, and Caroline and I were part of a group of 6, getting together for pre-dinner drinks and spending time as a group over the four days.
The next day was our visit to the Fair. We got there just before 10.00, and there was a very long queue. There were people handing out goody bags, then we got a programme, so we could find our way around, because there were four fairly large interlinking halls, so the floorplan was very useful!
There were also schedules of workshops, which you had to have pre-booked (sadly, the one I fancied was already full when I tried), but there was also a theatre in each of the halls relating to the theme of that hall:
· Gifts & Fashion
· Food & Baking and Travel & Outdoors
· Home, Gardening & Lifestyle
· Make It Yourself and tearoom & Lounge
In the Food & Baking hall they had the Live Kitchen Theatre where I watched Anne Harrison was demonstrating how to make a steak & kidney pie and meringues, followed later by Simon Thomas doing a Real Artisan Bread Masterclass
There were also schedules of workshops, which you had to have pre-booked (sadly, the one I fancied was already full when I tried), but there was also a theatre in each of the halls relating to the theme of that hall:
· Gifts & Fashion
· Food & Baking and Travel & Outdoors
· Home, Gardening & Lifestyle
· Make It Yourself and tearoom & Lounge
In the Food & Baking hall they had the Live Kitchen Theatre where I watched Anne Harrison was demonstrating how to make a steak & kidney pie and meringues, followed later by Simon Thomas doing a Real Artisan Bread Masterclass
I especially enjoyed the Make It Yourself Hall, and the Food & Baking Hall, and there was a lot to see. People did liken it to the Ideal Home Exhibition, and it was very commercial, which it probably had to be. It was also a shame there were not that many demos on the stalls. Some people showed how their products could be used, especially food related products, but in the craft hall I saw one lady crocheting, others were just selling. It was a very good effort, though, certainly worth repeating, maybe at other venues as well?
As programmed, we spent the next day at the Harlow Carr RHS Garden, there was a lot to see there too, and then on Sunday we stopped near Grantham, to visit Belton House, a NT property. That was another interesting place to visit.
We arrived back at Pembury around 6ish, and Caroline and I were taken home from there.
This was a really good Fair, which I would recommend, and I hope they don’t wait another 100 years before doing it again!
As programmed, we spent the next day at the Harlow Carr RHS Garden, there was a lot to see there too, and then on Sunday we stopped near Grantham, to visit Belton House, a NT property. That was another interesting place to visit.
We arrived back at Pembury around 6ish, and Caroline and I were taken home from there.
This was a really good Fair, which I would recommend, and I hope they don’t wait another 100 years before doing it again!