Despite the manky weather and sat-nav/address issues, we made it to Salford Museum and Art Gallery to visit the Vintage Village pop-up fair. On the way in, we spied the van of Ginger’s Comfort Emporium Ice-Cream and vowed that if the weather picked up, we’d indulge later. The fair appeared to be populated by pottery collectors: we saw Kevin and Joanne Thorpe who visited our Saturday Sale a few weeks back and Julian, Lisa and Chris were there too. This was a pre-arranged meeting though for some pottery exchanging action! They had the most amazing pot for me as a surprise: a gorgeous Carstens Ankara they’d found. I’m going to save this for a post of new Ankara pieces as I’ve had a few recently that haven’t been featured yet.

Anyway, onto the fair…

There weren’t quite as many homewares and furniture stalls as I was hoping for; despite loving vintage and retro stuff I tend to get fatigued by rails and rails of clothing. However, the stalls that were there selling vintage/retro homewares seemed to be of good quality and reasonable prices. Amongst some of my favourites were:

We brought our friends Rachel and Aaron along with us. They gamefully posed for a few pictures for me, but I won’t share the embarrassment for them here, what with also being well-respected teachers in the area! Aaron bought a really cool clock and mirror from All Mod Cons and CedricRetro. We only bought a few bits and bobs – everything we saw we liked, we either already had the same, something similar or just had no space for it whatsoever! What was good about this fair though, is that everything that was there was of really good quality yet still at reasonable prices; which I think is what collectors like ourselves are definitely looking for.

 We finished up by treating ourselves to an icecream from Ginger’s Comfort Emporium. I had a Salted Peanut-Butter and Caramel with Lemon Tart.  I think. It was quite complicated! Other choices were ‘Dark and Stormy’, ‘Marmalade on Toast’, ‘Spiced Apple Crumble’ and… I’m sure there was another one. Perhaps not! We also had a look round the Victorian Street in the Museum, which was pretty fun. I think Rachel was more excited by this than the vintage fair!

All in all, we’ve had a really good day. I love looking round these things and I was impressed by the quality of what was on offer. Next time it’s on in Stockport, I’ll be there. Especially if I can have another ice-cream…

Related articles

• The Vintage Village At Salford Museum (littleowlski.wordpress.com)
• The Saturday Sale! (littleowlski.wordpress.com)
• Sign of the times: Long-gone Salford streets remembered at exhibiton (menmedia.co.uk)