It was a huge gamble. For forty years the Swanvale Halt
Church Spring Fair has occupied a field outside Hornington town, an increasing
effort over the decades and one which, during the re-assessment of everything
that took place during the pandemic restrictions, the planning group decided
was beyond them to repeat. The suggestion was made to relocate the whole event
to the church and churchyard, and scale it down while keeping most of its
elements. Would this work? Would we recoup anything worthwhile without the
footfall from Hornington High Street just a few yards away, the draw of the
bouncy castle and the great ring of tents and stalls? Would it even be possible
to do it cramming everything into the immediate curtilage of the church,
including finding enough space for the children of the infants school to dance?
It did, and it was.
Stalls, children’s activities, visiting choirs and bands,
and the aforementioned dancing children, all duly appeared and did their stuff.
The rain threatened, and occasionally splashed down the upturned instruments of
the Hornington Brass Band, but generally stayed away. And we made a kind of
profit on the event that we would have been pleased to make in its old format.
‘Great to have something right here in the centre of the community’, was the
consensus. What a relief!
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