Latest News Articles by Joan Porter
Long Melford centre ready to reopen
03 August 2020The planned reopening at Easter of the former antiques warehouse in the Suffolk village of Long Melford was one of the last features to appear in this column prior to lockdown.
Carmarthen fair put on hold
03 August 2020Towy Events organiser and dealer Robert Pugh has cancelled his August antiques and fleamarkets monthly event at the Carmarthen Showground and will await government guidance about when he can restart.
Rare Alphonse Visconti poster provides memory of travel joys
03 August 2020As foreign travel is greatly restricted for now, we can feast our eyes instead on this extravagant poster of the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco.
Shepton Flea leaps back into action at showground
03 August 2020Six months after the last Shepton Fleamarket was held at the Bath & West Showground in Somerset, the event returns on Sunday, August 16, with more than 250 stalls.
Stallholders raring to go at Jay fair
03 August 2020Jay Fairs aka Joy O’Meara, who launched her fairs in Oxfordshire in the 1980s with her sister Jill Napper, is excited about the return after a four-month absence of her popular monthly antiques fair at the parish hall in Benson, near Oxford, on Sunday, August 16.
Organisers frustrated by venue rules
03 August 2020Fairs held at conference and events venues that involve more than 30 people at any one time will not be possible under government legislation until October 1.
On a stairway to sales heaven
20 July 2020It’s not often that an antiques fair is likened to a Led Zep reunion, but bear with us…
Breaking down barriers: How redecoration is boosting trade
20 July 2020Stephanie Castell, owner of The Secondhand Warehouse in the Herefordshire town of Leominster, resorted to an extreme measure to make social distancing easier when the centre reopened: she took a wall out.
Ashburton gets back on the antiques trail
13 July 2020Eighteen months ago, dealer Lydia Wood launched an antiques trail in the small town of Ashburton on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park in south Devon.
B2B jumps through the hoops
13 July 2020Helen Yourston, director of B2B Events, has been in touch with a reminder of the organiser’s first event post-lockdown.
Take a break and switch off a little
13 July 2020Trader reopens shop and stresses the need not to bombard customers with the safety message
Business brisk as Swallow flies back
06 July 2020The appetite people have for the return of fairs and markets is summed up by Alice Roberton from Arthur Swallow Fairs talking about the specially adapted, fully outdoor Covid-19 antiques and salvage market on Saturday, June 27.
Sanity returns (with sanitisers)
06 July 2020Focus on two centres and a Cheshire fair as dealers and organisers encourage visitors
Lovejoy would be proud of you: new high-street shops in Suffolk and Dorchester
16 March 2020Suffolk town where the TV rogue ducked and dived experiences an antiques revival. Plus, details of the Long Melford fairs scene.
Textile Society award supports restoration
09 March 2020While one of the Textile Society’s important functions is holding fairs, another is its annual awards and bursaries, including a professional development award.
Norwich fair now a brocante
09 March 2020The long-running monthly fair held in the medieval St Andrew’s and Blackfriars’ Hall in the centre of Norwich – formerly the 'Norwich Antiques Fair' and most recently the 'Upmarket Fleamarket' – was taken over last November by antique and vintage toy collectors Leon and Kevin McLoughlin-Smith.
Malthouse hunt for militaria
09 March 2020Last year we featured the launch of the Malthouse Collective in Stroud, Gloucestershire. This offers 60 dealers and designers selling traditional antiques as well as interiors pieces and art from a listed former Victorian malthouse.
Bristol April photo fair cancelled
09 March 2020The second Bristol Vintage Photograph Fair due to be held on Easter Sunday, April 12, at The Royal Photograph Society’s headquarters in the city has been cancelled.
Many developments at busy mill
09 March 2020Four years ago we featured the Grade-I Listed Cromford Mill at Matlock in Derbyshire, and most specifically antiques dealer David Walsh who had launched the Cromford Mill Antiques Centre on the site.
Belfast fair back again
02 March 2020Irish provincial silver is always sought after. The c.1790 silver sauceboat pictured below by John Nicholson of Cork is a rare example.