Mixed Lot

It's The Cloisters Fair today and I'm really looking forward to it. Of course, Fanny Craddock will complain that their table lights have gone off (try plugging them into the socket, dear) and Joe Bloggs will complain that Fanny smells (tell her, not me mate), but there it is. Of course someone will (still) moan about the 50p entrance fee and and someone else will ask if it is possible to just 'use the toilet' (try the hedge, buddy). And, of course, everyone will tell me I drink too much and ask when the new saleroom will be ready. Sometimes the whole thing makes me want to scream 'Get me out of here' like a jungle contestant, but not today. Today, although it is still early (see me at lunchtime), I am relaxed. Perhaps it is the way the calendar falls this month, which has resulted in an additional week between auctions. Perhaps it is a maturing of my personality. Or perhaps I am just in a very very good mood.

It feels like I have been the custodian of The Cloisters Fair for an eternity. We have a new stallholder joining us in two weeks time, selling vintage clothes. She will join a long line of dealers stretching back to October, 1972. I wondered, as we spoke, just how many people have stalled at The Cloisters during that time. What records I have would suggest that it could be as many as 5,000. Certainly, by the time we reach our 40th anniversay next year (expect a very special invitation-only evening celebration) we will have held the fair on no less than 2,000 occasions. I am writing an anecdotal account about The Cloisters Fair and would welcome your contributions. We have already agreed a deal with a book publisher so do send in your tales - you may find you end up in print!

There were ten dealers stalling at the first fair (which actually began in the old library on Guildhall Hill before moving to St Andrew's Hall in 1976) and today we will have sixteen. It's always been 'intimate'. There have been times when it has held a magnificent array of 'proper' antiques and other times when we've struggled to put a show on at all - one Saturday, in particular I recall just four of us filling the hall. Some stallholders come and go quite quickly whilst others stay for a long long time. No one individual dominates the history of The Cloisters Fair - its had five 'guardians' - instead it has its own life and persona.

I can remember my predecessor, Gabby, handing me her table plan one day and saying 'Do you want to run it?'. Much as she loved the fair, she felt that her time with it was up. We met a few days later, in a cafe in Aylsham, and I bought the fair for an undisclosed sum. Gabby was a hard act to follow because she was well loved and respected in the trade (and still is). She also has a nice arse.

It's fair to say that the past few years have been tough trading, with an ecomonic depression and many stallholders leaving (natural wastage - I only kicked a couple out). But this morning, looking at my table plan and comparing it to the one I inherited, I'm thinking 'these people with me today are my friends, not just my stallholders'. That's why I am smiling. That's why I am in a good mood. That's why I know I will enjoy today.