The Vintage Bazaar at the Cheese & Grain in Frome, Somerset

This was a couple of weeks ago now, but what with Easter and bank holidays, time seems to be passing double quick. So anyway, my daughter and her friend were interested and off we went on a sunny Saturday morning to Frome. (Quick car park tip: there was a queue to get in because no-one realised there were several spaces to the right on the exit road. We nipped in on the right (there weren’t one way signs) and got a space straight away!) The entrance cost was £2 each, but the hall was big enough to justify this I suppose, and it was very busy, so people obviously didn’t mind paying the fee.

We all enjoyed ourselves having a thorough look around. As with all vintage fairs, I tend to think most of it is well over-priced, but there are bargains to be had if you have a good rummage. I bought a jar of white buttons; a lace shawl; 3 long strands of lace; a pack of random vintage fabric scraps and a reel of gorgeous soft pale blue velvet ribbon. All of which will come in useful for my handmade clothes for Oshun.

There was a good mix of stalls so you didn’t feel it was samey. The age of the items on offer were mostly too new for me though – 1960s +. I’m after earlier fabrics really. If you’re a Liberty print collector, then there was an excellent stall for you. I witnessed a very funny conversation with a man trying to point out to his wife that spending £150 on Liberty fabric was perhaps not the wisest thing to do!

The photos are of a stall from Nostalgia, a gorgeous shop in Shepton Mallet High Street and I love going in there. Definitely worth going to Shepton Mallet for! (Actually there are now several vintage and antique shops there.)

The only down-side of this fair was the fact that I hadn’t realised that the Giant Flea & Collector’s Market was on the next day at the Bath & West Showground. This costs £3.50 and you see 6 times the amount of stalls. (This means you do have to trawl through 6 times more over-priced rubbish though. See my review here.) From the sounds of the stallholders’ conversations, almost everybody was going to be there too, so that would have been better value entrance-fee-wise. On the up-side, the stalls at Frome were of a higher quality than most at the Bath & West. (Judging by the last time I went.)

So on the whole, I’d recommend this fair and I’m looking forward to (and saving up for) the next one.