The Tarvin Craft Fair is back!

The Craft Fair is back!

Having the Chapel closed for such a long time has meant that many of the favourite events run by Tarvin Methodist Church (TMC) were missing during 2020 and early 2021. There was no Christmas in the Parlour or Salvation Army Carol Service; no afternoon teas and no Knit & Natter. Probably the most obvious omission (simply because it is the largest event that we run) was the Craft Fair, where over a dozen stalls sell hand-made items of amazing quality at truly bargain prices.

Early in 2021, we began to make our plans and we found that all our former stallholders were remarkably keen to come back to us in early November. For a long while, the event was in some doubt because we had to show that we could take sufficient precautions to keep everyone safe but eventually we were able to put forward a robust risk assessment and were allowed to proceed. TMC is equipped with extractor fans set exactly in the middle of the building and drawing air in through doors and windows, front and back, up through the ceiling and out of the roof. Any CoViD19 germs that might be carried on aerosols (the tiny moisture droplets floating in the air) will therefore be drawn upwards and away from all of the people in the building, helping to keep them safe. When this is coupled with all of the other safety precautions, we felt that our visitors would be as safe as they could be.

On Saturday, 6th November, the weather was kind to us, producing neither hard frost nor strong winds or heavy rain. The stallholders were all set up by 10am and visitors were offered a wonderful colourful variety of hand crafted items and gifts. As well as pottery, fused glass, basketry and turned wood, there were knitted, crocheted and woven items, clothes, shawls, scarves, jewellery, accessories, watercolour paintings and decoupage items. Chapel stalls offered one stall selling cakes, jams, preserves and pickles, together with another offering an eclectic mix of hand-made and crafted items and gifts, ranging from knitted animals & characters, hats, gloves, babywear, through occasion cards and labels to iPhone supports and hand-made & decorated tea trays. This year, our famous Bacon Baps were moved outside, where the smell proved a huge attraction for passers-by as well as those coming to the Craft Fair. As usual, we ran a raffle and this proved as popular as ever.

As is so often then case, everyone is far too busy to be taking photographs during the Fair itself and so the only photos we have are those taken before we opened. You can clearly see the space we had allowed for safety, the arrows marking the one-way system and the hand sanitiser, present on every stall.

At the end of the day, the stall-holders all went home happy that they had done well (and that is the important thing because we hope that they will return next year!) But, of course, our reason for running the Fair is as a Chapel fundraiser – and in this, we were very successful. When taken together, the outdoor and indoor food, the raffle and the two stalls took almost £1,400 -a splendid result and one that will help TMC to get itself back to financial stability. We would like to offer a sincere “thank you” to all of our stall holders, to everyone who helped with the running of the event and, especially, to everyone who came along and supported us on the day. We are already beginning to plan for next year!

Ed: I went along and bought some Christmas gifts. Brilliant and colourful event as always and very well run from a CoVid 19 point of view. So pleased that you did so well. a good warm-up act for the Christmas Market!