Hello all!

I've found an interesting Web site for the English "National Fairground
Association".

  http://www.shef.ac.uk/~nfa/

It's a well designed site with lots of information on the history of the
English Fair, including biographies of many of the Showmen (and Women!)
who have guided the development of the Fairground in England -- Pat
Collins, Enoch Farrar, etc.  There is information about  various old
rides and the early bioscopes; historic pictures of olde-time Fairs --
The Nottingham Goose Fair among them.

This is an elaborate site and will take time to fully explore!

The only thing missing from this site are pictures of Fairground Organs!
Though there is a picture of one of Enoch Farrar's "Scenic's" (taken
around 1915) showing a huge Marenghi organ which is very similar to the
large Marenghi in The Thursford Collection of Fakenham, Norfolk,
England.  Like the Thursford Marenghi, this organ is complete with full-
sized horses on the facade crest, though their pose is slightly
different.

Having seen and heard the magnificent Thursford Marenghi, I can only
imagine what this organ must have sounded like in its prime!  The
Farrar's owned many of the largest Gavioli's and Marenghi's imported
into England.

This picture is at: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~nfa/history/rides.html

The pictures within this site are worth saving and are of much higher
quality than Netscape is capable of displaying.  If you have an off-line
picture viewer, such as LView Pro or Vueprint, the pictures will be
shown with much greater detail.

I've heard F.O.P.S., "The Fairground Organ Preservation Society", is
about to launch a Web site.  Does anyone know of this?  I hope it's
true!

Enjoy, and Take care!

Ron Yost <musik@tcsn.net>