Historic pictures of Letwell Village Fair sought by organisers for new Facebook archive

Every year, The Letwell Village Fair raises funds for its historic 14th-century church and residents want to create a historical archive of the event on its new social media page.

They also hope the Facebook account will help to attract more people to the event, which features traditional games like splat the rat and a coconut shy.  

Adrian Parkinson, from the fair committee, said: “We love welcoming folk to Letwell every July, and we’ve realised it’s time more people knew about what we’re doing here so they can come along and join in the fun.

“The hope is that the Facebook page will provoke new interest in the event and let us make more money to support the village church, which is in constant need of maintenance and repair.

“In the 1950s, the pace of life was much slower and people found out about the fair by word of mouth. It was in everyone’s diary, and the villagers put on a show to give local people a great day out.

“Nowadays social media has created a new community, and we’re hopeful that we can tap into that and get new people along on July 7 this year.

“We’d also love to be able to use the new Facebook page to create a living archive of the event, with pictures from recent fairs alongside ones from the six decades it’s been running. It would be fantastic to have some new faces to add to that archive for 2018.” 

This year, the fair will see the return of a South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue engine, a display of historic military vehicles, snail racing and cake stalls.

There will also be maypole dancing, Thurcroft Brass Band and a Scottish pipe band.

Nick Sharpe (38) grew up in Letwell but now lives in Scotland. He returns every year to volunteer at the fair and has dug out some of his snaps to kick off the online archive.

He said: “The Village Fair was part of my childhood and I have great memories of it, so every July we pack the car and travel back to help out, bringing our children along too.

“It’s nice to see the same faces year after year, but the hope is that the Facebook page will attract a whole new audience of people who live nearby but don’t know the event is taking place.

“Using the page as an archive of images of fairs gone by would be a fitting tribute to all the people who’ve made the event what it is over the years.”

Search Letwell Village Fair on Facebook.