East Bergholt 1979

The first Albion Fair at Oaksmere brought into its realm of influence a family from Colchester way. "We want one", they cried, and by the end of the autumn plans were hatched to extend Albion's reach.

First step, find more people.

Best place to start, Old Hall, a community occupying an old friary in the heart of Constable country. We dropped a note in and were duly invited there for a chat.

We met one white winter evening, and introductions over on went into an explanation of what we hoped to do, our recruitment rap. Some of them had been to Barsham Faire and there was obviously enthusiasm for the idea. Mission accomplished, we thought.

Then a lull in the conversation,

"Would you like to see the field?"
What was that? Field? THE field. That's step two, find a site, hadn't started on that one.
The community had already been considering hosting a fair, our approach the trigger that put things into motion.

So there we found ourselves, in snow lit darkness scanning the contours, eyes to likely spots for dome, stage and other main structures, imaginations released by the lack of detail.

The dewpond field was the home of the first two Stour Valley fairs.