ESTABLISHED in 1988

That was our Twenty First  Show just gone. I’m not sure what we expected in the current trading climate but what we got was odd. Footfall was the lowest we have ever seen which brought all our other cash spinners down too, especially refreshments. We were fully subscribed for high quality craft pitches so a loss was impossible.

As usual the quality of the exhibits was very high and useful sales were being made around the Hall but they were clearly well down on normal too.

I think we just write it off to the recession and move on.

There will be one change however my expertise is contacts, layouts and stuff. I think my style of writing it up needs replacing by fresh approaches ditto my attempts at advertising material. All volunteers very welcome indeed.

This years picture are a mixture of Terry Rosamond’s and mine and span the show including the whole lunchtime period when Elsenham just plain shuts.

The history of the show.

Many years ago now (1988) the Elsenham Community Association started holding annual Art and Craft Fairs in the Village Hall. Joan Boughton was the driving force then.  I was just getting reasonably proficient with my woodturning and had got to the point of wondering what to do with all the stuff I was making. My hobby was the making and over the years I had become good enough to have stopped throwing my efforts quietly in the bin! The village and I started in craft fairs together and we succeeded and grew together, eventually I got co-opted onto the committee. Many of the rest of the committee are also exhibiting local craft-people so we have a very strong vested interest not just in making money for our community but making the show an overall success. To us the show has to be seen as payday for all and good for the public too else they won’t come back next year.

Support by local artists has also been growing over the years so that now we are seeing a wide variety of media and styles. As organisers we count ourselves fortunate that artists are such individualists that we never have to worry about them clashing.

The other committee stalwarts are Sue and Peter Johnson, Sue and Richard Moulds and Terry and Brenda Rosamond and recently Robin ans Elizabeth Barker have joined in. As you can see its a very small committee for such a lot of work, if you have any spare time at all and would like to help out you will be most welcome.

It is not a large show, we can just pack in 27 stalls but we never do, preferring to be able to move around easily. This puts a practical limit of 24 pitches on us plus a lot of half pitch demonstration spaces.

We are careful with our bookings, only good quality genuine craft goods are allowed in, our reputation around the villages is more important to us than the pitch fees. We have come to respect the acceptance criteria of the Guild of Essex Craftsmen and don’t need to verify the quality of members work. Some other ‘Guilds’ however simply make a charge to use their logo and do no vetting but we know who they are! We are  additionally very careful to avoid excessive duplication and on our documentation the point is clearly made that exhibitors must not turn up with goods outside their declared interest.

To resolve conflicts local craft-workers get first priority for a month after the year’s launch in the village magazine, on a first come basis, then the remaining pitches are thrown open but we prime the pumps so to speak with a ring around to all the people who have exhibited with us before. As my wife and I travel around the Craft Fair venues we also keep an eye open for new people with fresh ideas and try to book them too, we need to keep the show developing.

Any craftworker wanting to exhibit can make contact through e-mail to me. Non-guild members will be asked to provide returnable photos or samples of goods.