![\"Monty](\"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/bv\/Hammond-Fair-2009-Monty.jpg\" "\\"Monty")
<\/a>Monty Hammond<\/p><\/div>\n
Monty Hammond has been in the fairs business all his life. “I can remember minding a Lucky Dip stall when I was just six years old. I’m 63 now”. When asked what the total value of the whole of his fair was, Monty said “I own nearly all of the equipment at this fair and it\u2019s worth about \u00a31.8million, but I’d give it all to have my wife (Kay Hammond, also 63, who died in 2008) back”.<\/p>\n
Showman<\/strong> Dodgems<\/strong> Predator machine at Hammond Fair 2009<\/p><\/div>\n Predator<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hammond Fair 2009 Inflatable slides<\/p><\/div>\n Hong Kong<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Monty Hammond, far right in South Korea<\/p><\/div>\n Korea<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gatwick<\/strong> Fun Fair at the Oval<\/strong> [Monty Hammond interviewed June 2009 at the Oval, Bohemia].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By John Humphries, June 2010 Monty Hammond Monty Hammond has been in the fairs business all his life. “I can remember minding a Lucky Dip stall when I was just six years old. I’m 63 now”. When asked what the total value of the whole of his… Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[211,207],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20037"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20037"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20103,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20037\/revisions\/20103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMonty is a third generation fair-man. “I was born to be a showman,” he says. Monty has two sons, Monty Junior (40) and Charles, (34) and a daughter, Tina (41). “I’ve also got five grandsons and one grand-daughter. One of my grandsons is also called Monty”. It is usual practice in the fairground community for names to be passed on through the generations. “My grandfather, Alf Hammond, started the fair business. He had to use horses to move all the equipment around. Later came steam engines. Today, we use articulated lorries.”<\/p>\n
\nThe fair was well attended when the Village Voice<\/em> called \u2013 in June last year. “That’s because we offer superb value for money” said Monty. “For a child (someone under 1.2m), the cost is just \u00a35.99 to go on as many rides as they like all day”. \u00a0St Michael’s Hospice is helped by the fair. “We distribute 60,000 flyers around the town including shops and schools. The Hospice gets 20p for every flyer returned to us at the fair”. Monty calls it the ‘theme park’ system: “We’ve been doing it for 5 years now. The dodgems are the family favourite; anyone can enjoy them. The track and framework on our dodgems is 55 years old, and it’s still in excellent condition. The track (built by ‘Supercar’ of Coventry) was originally operated by Botton Bros of Great Yarmouth and was a regular at Olympia for the annual Bertram Mills Circus and indoor fair each Christmas in the 1960’s.\u00a0It was here that in 1967 the famous model Twiggy was photographed on the track by the Press Association, an image which was one of 40 of their iconic images displayed last year at St. Pancras for the joint 140th anniversary of the station and PA. The dodgem cars are only seven years old. The best dodgem cars come from a firm called Barbieri in Italy; they cost about \u00a34,000 each. They are still serviced by the successors to Supercar now in Warwick. The track can extend to 80 feet, but is usually operated at 40 feet.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOne of the exhibits is the ‘Waveswinger’ \u2013 also from Barbieri. It is one of the most popular rides in the country and one of only two in the UK, the other being in a park in Scotland; it’s only five years old. Another machine on the fairground is the Predator (picture<\/em>). This is a renaming \u2013 after the Hollywood film and with appropriate artwork from Welsh artist Chris Gadd \u2013 of the Orbiter. This too is one of only two of its type travelling, though there are several similar. It was conceived and built by Richard Wools, in Canterbury. Co-incidentally, Richard and the Wools family used to operate the funfair here on the Oval in Hastings among their run of fairs across the region, before Bottons became involved. A Welsh artist, Chris Gadd has created original designs for some of the exhibits \u2013 all signed by him.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nMonty has taken his fair all over country and all over the world, including Hong Kong, Mainland China, Dubai, Malaysia and Korea. “In the 90s we spent three winters in Hong Kong travelling around to eight different venues. And in 1996\/7 we went to Mainland China. I had a partner who’d lived in Hong Kong a long time and he helped us get into China. We took all our equipment to Hong Kong first and then across the border to China. It took 36 hours just to cross that border! We were there for six weeks and made a good profit. The Chinese people were fascinated by our fair \u2013 they had nothing like it then, although they do now. We had to build a fence round the fair to keep the majority of people out and only let in those who had any money to spend. They had to pay to get in. They then paid to go on the rides, but in the local currency, RMBs, which was worthless outside China. We had to go to the Triads to convert the RMBs into Hong Kong dollars!”<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n“In 2002\/3, we took the fair to Dubai; we were in a place called Creek Park for 3 months; it wasn’t very good; we lost money there. No alcohol was allowed of course, but we managed to get a drop. In 2006\/7 we went to South Korea, to a place called Busan. They got in touch with us and invited us over there. They were supposed to pay our travelling expenses there and back, but that never happened.” How on earth do you move a whole fair to the East? “That’s easy \u2013 all the rides can be packed up onto trailers and you just roll them onto a ship and roll them off again at the other end. The floors of many rides fold up to form the sides of a trailer. Once we’ve put all our stuff on the ship, we fly out a few days before it’s due to land and we’re there when it arrives. Simple.\u201d Monty’s also taken the fair to Malaysia \u2013 in Kuala Lumpur. “Everything is roll-on roll-off; it’s so simple”.<\/p>\n
\nWhere does Monty buy his rides from? “Well, we actually make some of them ourselves. We’ve got a site at Copthorne near Gatwick where we assemble them. We’ve built 80 ‘Twister’ rides over the past 24 years and we’ve sold them all over, including the US, Ireland, Scandinavia. They retail at about \u00a3200k”. “At my depot, I’ve got a Kiddies Gallopers, a machine made 120 years ago by a firm called Halsteads. We don’t take it out any more, but it’s in good working order. I last used it a few years ago at Claridges Hotel in London in aid of Cancer Research. I intend to let my grandchildren have a ride on it.”<\/p>\n
\nWhat\u2019s planned for this year (2010)? Fair spokesman Des FitzGerald said \u201cThe line-up will be pretty much as last year except that the rides etc. will probably be enclosed on the Oval with a single entrance and entry by wristband \u2013 there will be concessions for parents of kids who themselves aren’t going on the rides. This is to maintain the family atmosphere and prevent groups (not interested in the fair) using the event as a gathering place. This has worked wonders in many parts of London, Kent and Sussex, where the safe family atmosphere has prevailed and kids cannot go missing so easily!\u201d The funfair will be held at The Oval, Bohemia Road, from Fri 11 June to Sat 26 June; open weekends from 1pm to 10pm and on weekdays from 4pm to 10pm. Entry by wristband \u00a37.99 (1 metre tall or over) \u00a35.99 (under 1 metre). Includes all moving rides except reverse bungee; max 6 dodgems rides per wristband; Not valid on ghost train, inflatables or sideshows.<\/p>\n