Travelling Circus & Travelling Fair
in Llangefni, Anglesey.

by Gordon Weare
(New Zealand)

Dear Gentle Reader and Old Friends out there,

Do you also remember this?

Always in the Summer the trucks, generators, irons and ropes would appear in the field backing on to the 'PreFabs'.

Animals in wheeled cages! One concludes that it's the Circus.

Chairs, coloured boards, small tent and canvas roofs - that was the Fair. Giving a hand, running around collecting stakes and boards and ropes, all day, a kindly clown would then lift up the canvas drape to let us poor boys in. Do you get that today?

The fair came annually. The excited sounds, dings of bells, rumble of generators, hisses and ratatats. In the amusement tent, the penny machines tinkled & rattled, the smell of metal friction present, air rifles, darts and roll-a-penny. You could win a whiskey glass, a biro, even a Goldfish!

Girls danced to Elvis on the juke box. 'Good Luck Charm' it was. The constant DONG! of the missed coconut, and the big boys who never lost their balance on the bumping cars. Showoffs!

Un tro, roedd yna screchian diawledig ac yna ymafael mewn un hogyn gwallt coch. (Once time there was a heck of a scream and then grappling with a red-haired lad). Amid these slaps and yells of Ouch! the noise of the fair went ceaselessly on.

Then there was the 'Hammer of Strength', where He-Men would slam a large mallet to sprang a steel wad up, to the bell - if you were man enough! Just the once, my sister stood too close and caught the mallet under her chin, it was all in hand.

Sam was the man with a million keys around his neck, giving change, and emptying the machines. Did anyone ever win more than Threepence on the roll-a-penny? Strangely, thunderstorms always came at this time too, I wonder why.

I think the Fair came for a week, or so it seemed, then left. No idea to where. Memorable.

---

Dear Gordon and Family,

I thank you for your delightful family photograph, and how you all glow in your smiling.

As an education for your children, Gordon, I'll explain that the 'Prefabs' were the pre-fabricated homes that a post-War government built to address the serious housing shortage.

Many family friends lived in these prefabs, which came complete with an amazing fridge and fold-away table.

Now, the Fair I remember it well and your description brings back the tinkling and confusing speed and colour of the rides. The smell of ozone from the Walzers and the Bumping Cars, cuts searingly through the memory.

The Newsome Family - who finally settled in Benllech - ran the small fair, Ffair Bach, and every early Summer it would arrive in the football fields above the cemetry.

Thank you for your story and for allowing me to fill in my own gaps.

Also, please convey my warmest wishes to your family.

Wil