Cliff Marston and Cedric Conway Collection

Black and White and colour prints of lorries, rides, shows, organs and preservation vehicles at various fairs and rallies, largely identified and dated, and other items collected by the enthusiasts.

Cliff Marston was a native of Bishop's Castle, the tiny Shropshire town along the Welsh Marches that was once the country's smallest borough. Bishop's Castle was (and still is) one of those places that formed part of that chain of fairs along the Marches known as 'the May Run'. His first memories of his home town's May Fair dated from the early years of the twentieth century, when the amusements were presented by the Bristol showman Marshall Hill. His working career was spent in Manchester as an employee of the city's tram and bus company. After retirement he moved to Wrington near Bristol, where he became one of the principal members of the Western Counties Fair Organ Club, a now-defunct association that was set up as an alternative to the Fair Organ Preservation Society. He died in 1978.

Cedric H Conway worked as a bus driver in Manchester. It was in this employment that he was a colleague of Cliff Marston and Rowland Scott, both fellow fairground enthusiasts. He was a member of the Friendship Circle of Showland Fans and, during the 1960s, contributed a series of articles to its magazine The Merry-Go-Round under the evocative title of 'The Glow in the Sky'. He joined Cliff Marston in retirement by moving to the West Country, where he died circa 1970.

Graham Downie

Catalogued by type

The photographs make up part of the image database collection which is available to view by appointment in the NFA reading room. Other items must be requested prior to appointment.

Donated by the Tussauds Group.

Photographs on image database. Other items are currently being listed by type. Contact the NFA for further information.

Description compiled by Jane Donaldson

Copyright: National Fairground Archive.

Rowland Scott Collection