Albert Martin's Hoopla at Penzance Fair in 1978, with David Rowland and Arthur James's Big Wheel. Hoopla signs read 'Score under 30 with 3 Separate Numbers to Win', 'One Win Any Prize', '20p' and 'Gold Plated Ingots Here'.
These were some of the largest machines ever seen in Britain up to that date. This example, pictured at Southport, was the largest permanent Fair Ride in Britain up to 1900. Holidaymakers rode in suspended car which swung out as the speed of the ride…
Few people now can recall the annual visit of Henry Jones & Sons Fair to Halsetown where they built up in a crowded meadow among the cabbages and rows of peas, some 700 feet above St Ives and in the shadow of Rosewall (locally called Buttermilk)…