Make a D Day of it

 

To commemorate its crucial role in the D Day landings (when 2,500 troops from the American 4th Infantry Division departed from its Breakwater Beach on 4th June 1944 bound for 'Utah' Beach on the Normandy Coast) Brixham's hosting a very special 75th anniversary event filled 'Back to the 40s' week from June 1st - 9th.

 

 

Tea dances, 1940s black and white films, a Victory Art exhibition, walking tours, talks, 1940s themed craft fairs, fashion show and flea markets, a Battle of Britain memorial flight, free tours of the historic vessel Motor Torpedo Boat 102, live music from big bands to the Lympstone Military Wives Choir and including our favourites the lovely Liberty Sisters  and dance displays from Lindy Hoppers...there's definitely something for everyone...and, let's face it, every single one of us owes a huge debt to all those who risked and, in many cases sadly gave, their lives 75 years ago. 

 

 

So get your glad rags on and we'll see you there!

P.S. You can find details on all the events here!

Work, Rest and May!

 

 

Wow! What a truly vintage weekend! We're exhausted but we've had a great time.
 

The Dawlish Antiques and Vintage Fair on Saturday went really well. After an early 5am start to get over to the Strand Centre to set up the room we were ready and waiting to welcome all of our lovely stallholders as they arrived and the whole day flew by. There were so many exciting things - the street market, circus acts, puppet shows - happening in Dawlish that there was a great buzz throughout the day. The highlights had to be the stilt walkers visiting us and one of them buying our 1970s jump suit, carrot cake courtesy of fellow stallholder Shirley and, of course, lots of happy customers. To celebrate the Bank Holiday weekend and the Dawlish Street Market and Fun Day we stayed open until 4pm and still had customers coming in after we'd closed!

 

On Sunday it was the Dawlish Heritage Cycle Day. Another early start to get our outfits ready and make sure our bikes were ok. We met our fellow vintage cyclists on the Lawn at 10am and everyone looked fantastic. First of all it was a ride to Luscombe Castle, which is always so pretty riding up the drive, and then onto the Manor House via the Dawlish Museum. We reconvened back on The Lawn to watch the lovely Liberty Sisters, who always put on a great show  before heading over to Powderham Castle and back. It's roughly 11 miles there and back and when you haven't been on your bike since the previous summer everything ached a little the following morning! Ouch! The journey's so pretty and with the company of the other bike riders we enjoyed every minute of it though and can't wait to do it again. Thank you Mr Porch for arranging such a great day, all for free too! 

 

On Monday we chilled out still managed to see the Panaticals steel drum band on the Lawn, what a great set, and later we popped over to the Swan Inn for some free (yes free!) food courtesy of Black Swan Dining who put on a taster menu before they open at the pub on 7 June. Their potato wedges and pizza dough balls are to die for! Music was also provided by The Deloreans, whose lead singer has an amazing soulful voice, and then it was The Ambassadors who were great fun! Kudos to local legend Brian Steffans for joining the band on a couple of blues numbers as well. 

All in all a truly vintage bank holiday weekend!

It's About Time!

Exciting news! The Dawlish Antiques and Vintage Fair is tomorrow and to celebrate the Dawlish Street Market and the Bank Holiday Weekend we've extended our opening hours until 4pm.

We open at 10am so we'll see you there.  Can't wait!

Truly Vintage!

This Bank Holiday it's a truly vintage weekend in Dawlish! 

 

On Saturday you'll find yourselves in vintage shopping heaven at the Dawlish Antiques and Vintage Fair at the Strand Centre. Have your purses and wallets ready from 10am. 

The Dawlish Celebrates Street Market is also open for business. Wicked What Nots will have a stall selling all kinds of vintage loveliness so give them a visit on your way to the antiques fair too.

On Sunday the Dawlish Cycle and Heritage Day pedals onto the Lawn. Vintage bicycles (our bikes and costumes are almost ready), music from the lovely Liberty Sisters and 60's Explosion, stalls, steam engine rides, bouncy castles, circus workshops and the crowning of the Carnival Queen! 

Then, to round off the weekend, as part of the long-standing Dawlish Arts Festival why not pop on your flares on for the ABBA tribute band Take A Chance on Us who'll be performing at the Welcome Inn at Dawlish Warren on Monday night. Mamma Mia, what a weekend! We'll be going back to work for a rest!

 

 

Getting ready for the fair!

Waiting for the train!

This weekend Auntie Lynne came to stay, the weather wasn't the best so we decided to visit the Newton Abbot Antiques Fair.

We had a good look round and as we'd bought loads of lovely vintage clothes and bags recently we decided to concentrate on smaller items. We came across some fabulous jewellery and picked up two beautiful marcasite brooches, a very pretty silver filigree butterfly brooch, a 1960s silver brooch and a stunning filigree and turquoise pendant. All of these items will be for sale at our next Fair on Saturday, May 25th too!



Obligatory pint!

After the fair we walked into Newton Abbot for the obligatory pint of cider and a spot of lunch. It was very small pickings around the charity shops but we fell in love with a 1950s box set of Bizet's Carmen. Opera lovers, us? No, afraid not, we just love the fact that it features the very glamourous Rise Stevens.

On Sunday it was get ready for the fair day, which we always enjoy doing. As the summer's here we had a good look through our vintage clothes racks and found some gorgeous summery items. If you fancy one of these pop along to our fair this coming Saturday 25th but get there early to avoid disappointment!

Lovely vintage items for sale at our next fair!

Who knows what you 'May' find!

With just over a week to go until the next Dawlish Antiques and Vintage Fair on Bank Holiday Saturday, that's 25th May, all of our stall holders including ourselves are getting their stalls ready.

 

Shirley, one of our regular stallholders, sent us some photos of the wonderful vintage bears she'll have on her stall. We'd buy them all if we could!

 

 

Our other stallholders will have everything and anything you could wish for for sale including vintage clothes, stamp collections, Swarovski animals, ceramics, vintage tins, toy trains and fine silver jewellery.

 

Come and have a look....you won't be disappointed!

 

 

 

P.S. Thanks for the photos Shirley - can't wait to see the bears on your stall!

Hurrah for Langstone!

 

Hurrah for the Langstone Cliff Hotel Antiques and Collectables Fair!  We really enjoyed it and was great to meet lots of new traders and see some of our regular customers too.

A big thank you goes to Stephanie who bought some of our tres chic French 1950s & 60s fashion magazines and very cool black white Parisian postcards. Oooh la la! 

We picked up some bargains ourselves including a set of drawers pre-dating WWII for a bargain price of £4, two gorgeous 1930s ladies face plaques to add to our collection and some very cool cocktail stirrers from the art-deco New York Hotel Roosevelt.

A big well done to Carolyn and Sheila for all their hard work in setting up the fair and managing it on the day (running fairs ourselves we know how exhausting it can be!). 

Fair-ever next!

 

The excitement's building as the first Langstone Cliff Hotel Antiques and Collectables Fair is almost here! Only two days to go in fact! And it'll be the first fair outside Dawlish that we've traded at. Fair-ever next eh? 

 

We're ready, our stall's ready and we hope you're ready for this exciting new fair too.

See you on Sunday at the Langstone Cliff Hotel in Dawlish Warren. The fair opens at 10.30am and runs through to 3.30pm.

'Plank' goodness for the Bank Holiday!

 

In Brixham

 What a weekend! A long one too, thanks to the Bank Holiday! 

On Saturday we sailed off to The Pirate Festival in Brixham via a charity shopping spree in Paignton first. Our spree was really successful and we added to our vintage clothing collection by picking up a 1960s tweed jacket, 1960s maximum dress and a couple of lovely vintage handbags.

We had decided we wanted to be in Brixham for midday and despite the bus station being full of pirates waiting for the bus too (who knew pirates got the bus eh?) we got on one fairly easily. We were really excited as we'd heard lots of good things about Brixham and it didn't disappoint. Brixham's traditionally a very pretty fishing town renowned for smugglers. Over the last 11 years the whole town's embraced the Pirate Festival and everywhere you look there's pirates! Pirate shopkeepers, pirate babies, pirate dogs, pirate belly dancers...you name it!

The Pirate Festival

We watched a pirate reenactment which included gun powder and lots of smoke and some great pirate bands including Dolmen. Shiver me timbers Jack Sparrow would have enjoyed them.

Sunday was a day of gardening and then on Bank Holiday Monday we got ourselves ready for a brand new antiques fair that we're trading at next Sunday. We measured our table space and spent an hour or three deciding what to take. As it's the first time we've done a fair at the Langstone Cliff Hotel (Dawlish Warren) we really want to cover all bases so we'll be bringing along some vintage handbags, 1950s French fashion magazines, vintage costume jewellery and a handmade vintage football rattle for all those Liverpool fans out there...fingers crossed we've got it right! Pop along this coming Sunday and let us know.



Some of our stock for next Sunday's fair

Shiver Me Timbers!

 

So looking forward to the bank holiday weekend, that extra day makes all the difference.

 

This is going to be a weekend of firsts!  Our first trip to Brixham (can't wait, it looks so pretty!) for our first visit to the Brixham Pirate Festival (shiver me timbers!) on Saturday. Why are we going to a Pirate Festival? Wait for it...because we 'Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr'. Get it?!  Then on Sunday we'll be preparing for our first antiques fair outside of The Strand Centre (very exciting but yikes we've got lots to do!) being held at The Langstone Cliff Hotel (Dawlish Warren) on Sunday May 12th. 

 Whatever you're up to make sure you have a first class bank holiday weekend too!