Jessica couldn’t get to the fair this year and so she asked me to take a picture of her favourite ride. She remembers it best as Jump ‘n’ Smile. More recently it has been known as Froggit. This year it had been reincarnated as Super Bounce.
I sometimes try to imagine what Abingdon Fair was like in the past with the help of old newspapers … In 1830, instead of Superbowl, you might have seen “an exhibition of wild animals and fat ladies, and elephant and dwarfs, monkeys with hands and a child without any.”
Instead of The Waltzers “for the price of one penny, you could have seen the lying in state and funeral procession of George IVth, and the glorious battle of Paris during the very last revolution.”
In 1840 “Our Police Force needed to be vigilant in detecting the hordes of pick-pockets who could be seen in every direction pursuing their vocation.”
By 1882 rides had started to replace the shows, and exhibitions, so instead of Captain Hook you could have experienced “Bailey’s Steam Yachts with the simulated motion of the sea. Three electric lamps stationed outside gave a brilliant light, but they were not seen to best advantage amid the smoke and the blaze of paraffin lamps.”
“Birds was the only steam roundabout at the fair , but there was a rickety one in the Sheep Market at which a pony provided the power.”
I’d be curious to know how old that Superbowl ride it. I certainly remember it being there in 1996. Although it was in a different place. It was by Coxeter House where the Zipper used to be in the late 80’s
I went on the steam yachts at Dorset steam fair this summer.
i was too little to ever go on the zipper so was sad when it dissapeared.
i still like a stroll through the fair but since i started attending the st giles one in oxford it’s never looked quite so big or exciting.
The name of the frog it depends on the owner each family have a different name for example one family have one called city bounce.
Tim – the Superbowl was built in 1992 in Enstone by ARM. It is still owned by the same family (Robert Wilson of Bob Wilsons & Sons) who have had it since new and has been regularly refurbished and updated.