A Fair Days Work
The Pleasurelands exhibition at the Croydon Clocktower, a photographic display cataloguing the history of the fairgrounds, brought memories flooding back to Wally Plummer who was a fairground worker in Croydon.
When the fair rolled into town, many locals descended on the site in the hope of getting some short-time employment,
Wally recalls: "The one showman's fair I remember the most was Henry Botton and Sons. Quite a few of us turned up for work if the fair was in town.
"If you were lucky enough to be I picked out you were put into small groups with one professional to tell you what to do. Some were there for the cash but I, on leave from the army, just went for the experience."
According to Wally, Henry Botton and Sons toured Croydon before, during and after the Second World War and his experiences there left vivid impressions in his memory.
"Although it was the tail-end of the war, blackout restrictions were still in force so diesel oil for running the generators was in short supply. If you put on more than one ride at a tune it overloaded and a fuse was blown.
"Mr Botton was always around supervising. One evening, one of the local boys was caught short changing a customer. He turned the culprit upside down and giving him a good shake, until all the cash spilled onto the floor.
"I remember him saying to the lad, 'It's people like you that give me, and fairs, a bad name' before throwing him out."
The work which workers were required to undertake back then would be deemed unacceptable in this health and safety conscious age. Wally says: "In those days a lot of the rides were made up of heavy timber and every piece had to be locked in place with split-pins and bolts.
"Everything was packed with thick grease for easy movement. Two of us had to get underneath to ease up the floor on our backs while the spindles were pushed through.
"I finished up with most of the grease on my zip jacket. "How my mother managed to clear it I shall never know."
But when the work was over, Wally enjoyed the perks of the job, namely taking advantage of some of the fairground attractions on offer.
"I won a few prizes on skittles, I still have one of these, a china parrot which survived the war.
"The travelling boxing booth was something to see. Anybody could challenge the boxer to three rounds for a prize of a 10 shilling note.
"To show you how tough he was, and to create an atmosphere for the crowd, the boxer would come on the stage with two bandaged hands with an apple placed on one of them.
"Another man produced a cutlass and brought it down with one swipe, cutting the apple in two. If there was any trickery used in this stunt, I never knew how it was done.
"The air was thick with tobacco smoke obscuring most of the action and people were goading on the two boxers.
"The atmosphere was electric, as one by one they were floored by a well-filled boxing glove."
The Pleasurelands exhibition, which ended this month, brought the memories of Croydon's fairgrounds alive again for many of people who visited it, Wally adds: "I take my hat off to the people who do this work as a way of life, I was just there for the experience."