Sandringham, Norfolk, UK 12th/13th June 
As we set out on the Saturday for Sandringham on our relatively short journey
(others had travelled from the US, Australia and elsewhere) the clouds started to form
overhead. Casting this aside we continued to make our way dressed in our finest Summer
clothes, and World Collectors Net T-shirts. Half way to Sandringham it began to rain
and continued to rain off and on for the rest of the day. That combined with the whole
of Europes lorries in front of us made a an hour journey, two hours.
Having arranged to meet some friends from the message board at the Little Lost Dog
statue at 12am we had to hurry. We finally arrived at about 12.20 and sped through
the mud (well as fast as you can with a baby and buggy) to find the statue and hope that anyone who was coming might have waited.
I wandered aimlessly for about 10 minutes trying to find the statue, then approached several different LL representatives to ask for directions to the Little Lost Dog. Puzzled looks greeted, are you mad they must have thought! It turned out that the Little Lost Dog was indeed lost himself and had not managed to find his way to the event. Disappointed at the possibility of not meeting anyone I wandered back to find my wife and baby in the tea tent. After a jolly nice cuppa I took a stroll. 
Amazingly I spotted
two people with name badges Marty and Joann. It had to be Marty Cohen, and it was.
I was soon handing out WCN T-shirts, and soon after Tony Pring and his wife appeared in the
tea tent where we had adjourned too. It was great to meet some people. Unfortunately
others Claire, Didier were elsewhere.
I had also forgotten my camera and digital camera, but luckily Tony allowed me to borrow his and I managed to take a few snaps. (Many thanks to Tony for the use of his camera). 
The fair had lots of events, tents and displays. Displays included the Mad Cossacks display (I am sure this is not their real title) but they certainly
were mad, throwing themselves all over galloping horses. Other displays were performed by the Portsmouth Navy Cadets,
and an excellent performance from the Highland Band of the Scottish Division (pictured right).
There was also a childrens theatre where our baby enjoyed a balloon magician and hypnotist.
Well he was not really a hypnotist but he did convince 20 very enthusiastic children that two
ballons tied together was an elephant. I saw through this, it was obviously a giraffe.
For adults there was the Gypsy Camp and Street Theatre (pitured left).
There were three main tents the busiest being the Collectors Club where people were
busy collecting there event pieces. The event piece was Queen Alexandra's Nest (the actual
house is pictured top right) and is a Summer house in the Sandringham grounds. The other two
contained LL displays and items for sale and the last and for me the most interesting the
Research and Development tent. Here you could find out how all the LL models are made and
watch painting demonstrations and if you were daring paint your own.
Some of the equipment and terminology used in the R&D tent was very scarey, and I was very impressed
at how much effort goes into making the models. Pictured left are various stages in the life
of a cottage.
Pictured right is some scarey equipment, I cannot actually remember what part of the process this was.
The day progressed with a slide show which unfortunately was already pre-booked but reports from attendees said it was very enlightening, and later in the evening an auction. The auction was attended by about 300 people and included David Winter cottages. The results were very inconsistent with certain cottages fetching good prices which is encouraging to see. Others that were expected to do well didn't - that's auctions for you. Could not attend on the Sunday but the weather was much improved and one of the best days of the Summer thus far. British weather is so unpredictable! It was great to put some faces to some names and hope to see a lot more of you at Syon Park next year. Darryl, World Collectors Net Lilliput Lane Information |
