I would just like to say a big thank you to all the dodgem guys that worked with me over the last month up in Sheffield (Ponds Forge).

They were a great help and a pleasure to work with.

Thanks again,

Amanda Birch
Event Manager
Best Parties Ever

We have just come across some press cuttings related to the Irvin family history and links to the past and wanted to share them with our loyal reader. First of all, the next George Irvin is a direct descendent of Frank Wilson, described in the press upon his sad death (fortunately not from a hungry lion) published on December 16th 1911. The World’s Fair, still going strong, on that day printed the following:
“It is with great refrest that we have to announce the death of Mr Frank Wilson, the well known showman and animal trainer, who passed away at 3 am on Wednesday. The late Mr Wilson attended Lord George Sanger’s funeral (Lord George was the most famous of the Victorian Showmen in Britain) last week and caught a chill, then became worse and despite the best efforts of doctors and family passed away.He lived in Wood Green, London. Mr Wilson was the leading trainer at Sedgewick’s Menagerie where he was known as Lorenzo the Lion King. He gained much popularity with the bouncing lion.

Interestingly on the same day the World’s fair stated that Savages, the original carousel construction company based in Norfolk, were being rescuded from financial difficulties and taken over so they could continue to make the superb carousels for which they were famous and upon which George Irvin, descendent of Lion tamers, operates today. Much safer than bouncing lions!

We also are reminded, and love so to be, of the cutting from the Evening Standard in 1999 recording the granting of the wonderful Millennium Funfair on The Mall which Irvin Leisure organised and we know perfectly well that Frank Wilson would have looked down upon that and admired the quality of an event catering as the Standard said, within the Royal Parks with smiles and laughter for once, for millions of people and which has now evolved into the wonderful Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.

Also smiling down are some of the Irvin family as shown on these photos we want to share with you, including William Irvin, the first Irvin in the fairground business from 1902 and shown at the head of this article, then below is George Irvin, William’s son who took over and was the first ever George Irvin to find his name on the advertising boards for fairs which have now become those of Irvin Leisure. First we show him with his family in the 1920s.

Then below he is seen on the wonderful Traction Engine, names appropriately Marvel.

Finally in this short selection of photos, here is a photo of the George Irvin above’s three sons, from left to right George and then twins Benny and Billy.

And finally to return to the start of this article, here is a photo of Frank “Lorenzo” Wilson and at the very top of this page one of his bouncing lions!

Everything went brilliantly last night. The stalls looked fab in there and all the guys working on them were brilliant – fun, friendly and made for a real party atmosphere. Please pass on our huge thanks to them.

Thank you too, very much, for all of your help. I know there was a lot of chopping and changing and delays etc and I really appreciate your understanding.

Ken Curtis, over from the USA for three years, visited Winter Wonderland from where he sent this wonderful picture of our Peter Pan Jets, and also our Carousel at Hampton Court, and this is what he says:

Thanks!  It was beautiful.  I can tell a couple of things about your organization – 1.  Your rides are very well maintained and show a pride of ownership and 2.  Your employees that we met seem genuinely happy regarding their work.  These attributes are getting more scarce every day. 

You’ll enjoy the link below showing the recently restored carousel in our hometown of Raleigh, NC.

http://www.raleighnc.gov/arts/content/PRecRecreation/Articles/PullenParkCarousel.html

Take care,
Ken

We love to share with you images taken of our operation at various events, mainly to make sure that our staff have turned up, and here we are with our dodgems in Aberdeen on Friday 9th December (despite the seasonable but unreasonable weather conditions) and with our staff in period costume at Silverstone on Saturday 10th December. They do not normally go out on the town in those pink striped jackets, honest….or at least that is what they tell us.

The Dodgems at Aberdeen were part of an event organised by Mearns-Gill and this was inside a large hall so a bit tricky to get in, but nothing is too much trouble for us. Not doing nothing is too much trouble, you know what I mean. Silverstone was organised by our friends at Push UK and what a wonderful party they staged. They ordered the pink striped jackets too…..OK, all to their own taste but it really did work and a great time was had by all.

If you have images of our operations anywhere in Britain, do send them over and we will add them to our website.

Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park is now thriving and sometimes gets very busy, so we suggest that you look at alternative stations to Hyde Park Corner when you come along.

For instance, Green Park Station on the Jubilee and Victoria Lines is only 10 minutes away and Marble Arch and Lancaster Gate on the Central Line are just 15 minutes walk. You can also get the Land Train from Speaker’s Corner. Then there is Knightsbridge, which is a bus journey from the park or even South Kensington where you can exit by the route aiming for the Albert Memorial or Royal Albert Hall (how do you get to the Royal Albert Hall? Practice. Terrible old joke number 1 for today)

Or you can get Buses:

North : C2, 6, 7, 10, 16, 19, 23, 36, 52, 73, 82, 98, 113, 274, 390, 414
South : 2, 36, 137, 148, 159, 436
West : 9, 10, 14, 19, 22, 52, 74, 94, 148, 414
East : 8, 15, 23, 30, 38

We suggest that you do not drive, but if you do there is an underground car park near Marble Arch on Park Lane, but we strongly suggest you do come as this is London’s best day out this year.

Received this welcome letter and wanted to share it with you all.

We were thrilled to get this testimonial from Linda Hamilton, and guess who her son is and why our dodgems have never moved so quickly?

Morning George,  I just wanted to say a big thank you to you and your guys for Saturday evening.  Everything went really well and your staff were fantastic, very helpful and did a great job.  The dodgems were a huge hit, never stopped all night, and to watch everybody having such a good time was great.

Just a couple of the comments we received from our firework displays in 2011:

Thanks for your help it was really appreciated and I look forward to speaking with you soon about fireworks for next year. The feedback we have had has generally been very positive.  Best regards  Saida Ladha   London Borough of Brent.

On behalf of the Lambeth Events Team and the London Borough of Lambeth, we would like to thank you for your trade at the Fireworks event; and for making the day such a success.  It was a great day, and we have received a lot of positive comments about the day.  We estimated that approximately 100,000 people attended the event and enjoyed the fireworks display, entertainment, fun fair, food stalls and the exhibition at the hall.  Please also pass on our sincere thanks to those who assisted you with this event. We hope to continue to work with you in the future. Warm regards, Sonia McKenzie, London Borough of Lambeth.

Team did a great job on Saturday , please pass on my thanks. Steve Blosse, Wellington College.

Over the past week alone we have heard from members of the Irvin family who have come across our website and tracked us down. We are always delighted to learn more from people who read these articles (and it is nice to know that someone, somewhere, actually is!) so this is what they sent. First of all from Jackie Tidey. Jackie writes about her beloved grandmother:

My great, great grandmother was Harriet Phelps who married William Irvin. Attached are two photographs, the group photo is of my grandmother Ruby (standing in the stripe dress) with her sister also standing.  Her mother sitting is Ethel Paine Nee Irvin with her husband Albert standing behind her. This was taken in Atwell Street, Peckham, at a guess taken around 1945.

The other picture is Ethel Irvin but I do not know how old she was when it was taken, she married on 25 Dec 1911 and my grandmother Ruby was born on 12 May 1912!!!! She appears to have a wedding ring on in this picture and I have a feeling my Nan told me it was taken on her wedding day but I could be wrong. My Nan Ruby told me stories of the fairgrounds and how as a little girl would turn the drums which played the music, I vaguely remembering her telling me the story of her Aunt who died in an accident, so was interested reading the story of Ruby who died.  My Nan died in 2006, who I miss dearly, my dad might be able to give me some more information on the family, which if he has I will forward to you.

If you have any further information I would be very pleased to hear from you.

Then we also heard from Malcolm Gill, who has set us a mystery as he tells us:

My great grandfather John George HARRIS married Caroline IRVIN in 1878 in St Saviours, Southwark. I believe that Caroline had a connection to the Irvin travelling fairground folk. If this is the case can you tell me where I might gather some more information?

Well, we set our friend John Comino-James on the track of both of these and he tells us:

The information I have is that Ethel, daughter of William Irvin and Harriet Phelps married Albert Paine in 1911 and that they had two daughters, Florrie and Ruby May. Ruby I believe married a man by the name of Plummer. I’m pretty sure that the bones of this apart from the date came from George’s father when I first met him in 1999.

What would of course be interesting would be to fill in the lines relating to Florrie and Ruby although it seems likely that the descendants moved away from the business.

Regarding Caroline, he is trying to find out more including tracking a marriage certificate! So we will have more to come and will update this article when we do.

Now Jackie gives us even more information for which we are grateful:

My great grandmother was Ethel Irvin, my records show she was born in Burnham Beeches, Bucks on 31 Jan 1892 and died 23 Aug 1946 (daughter of William Irvin (b.1859 d: 26 Nov 1917) and (Harriet Phelps B: 1857 D:12 Dec 1933) Harriet and William married on 26 Jun 1882.

Ethel maried Albert Victor Paine on 25 Dec 1911 (Albert was born on 23 Nov 1890)they had two children Ruby May (my grandmother) born 12 May 1912 and died 1 Jan 2006) and Florrie.    My nan Ruby married Bernard John William Tagg on 23 Sept 1934 and had my Dad Bernard Albert Tagg B 13 July 1935, they also had another child Brenda but she sadly died when she was two.   Florrie married and had one daughter Patricia, which i do not have the dates for but my Dad may be able to help if you would like more information.  Ruby divorced Bernard Tagg and later married Tomas Plumber who I remember fondly.   My lovely Nan passed away on 1st January 2006 and I miss her dearly. I hope the information helps and if you need anything further please let me know. I will speak to my Dad and see if he has any other information, I know that Ethel was the first menber to live in a house, and while my Nan Ruby was living in Attwell Street Peckham in the 1940′s she used to keep in touch with her relatives from the fairgrounds.

Yes please Jackie, do ask your father if you do not mind!

And now a piece of family history from Malcolm Gill, the marriage certificate of John George Harris aged 22, bachelor, carman (drove a Southern Railway delivery wagon) of 279 East Street married Caroline Irvin aged 20, spinster, of 40? East Street, father’s name James Irvin (deceased), commercial traveller. Witnesses William J[a,o]cey and Richard Winter. 

Malcolm is now trying to find out even more, and we will keep you up to date on this! Fascinating and our friend John Comino-James will be looking at this too! Thank you so much for this Malcolm.

Even more information, now from David Cain:

Our great aunt did a family tree for the Cain family some time ago.

The original David Cain was a farmer from Aylesbury. He was born in 1826 and died 1902.  He had 4 children one of whom was Charles Cain, our Great Grandfather, he was described as showman and china dealer and opened the ground in Deptford.

Charles Cain married Hannah Knighton daughter of Elizabeth Irvin and Thomas Knighton. Thomas Knighton was Elizabeth’s 2nd husband, her first was John Irvin. According to the tree she had 19 children with John Irvin, including Henry Irvin from Scotland and John Irvin of Sanger’s Circus. John Irvin had 2 children Harry and Florrie Irvin.

With Thomas Knighton, Elizabeth had Thomas and Hannah.

Charles Cain and Hannah Knighton married in 1884 and had 8 children including our grandfather Tom Cain, Charles Cain jnr (Charlie) born in 1887 and David Cain born in 1888. These were the Cain Brothers who ran the ground at Deptford which finished in the 1960s and sold the china on the grounds.