Ruddington’s 2016 Christmas Fayre held on Saturday the 3rd of December has been hailed another success by most of the visitors and village businesses involved.
Organised by Ruddington Parish Council, it involved the closure of High Street throughout the day to accommodate numerous undercover street stalls in two large marquees, food and drink sellers, Keyworth & Ruddington Rotary‘s Father Christmas in his sleigh and even an MC! Many village centre traders opened for longer hours than usual to join in with the festive fun. There was a Nativity Tent and additional stalls at St Peter’s Church, the Ruddington Choir singing Christmas songs outside St Peter’s Rooms, and even a children’s fair and fun inflatables on The Green.
Nicola Burton commented on Facebook “We had a lovely afternoon, really well organised and loved the community spirit as always … good old Rudd!” Rebecca Clifton said “The best one yet. Well done to all involved, and thank you!” whilst Richard Thomas posted “Great afternoon with the kids, thank you to all the organisers. We are all very fortunate to have such a proactive community spirit. Well done.”
Lesley Wells from The Old Bakehouse Tearoom took to Twitter to say “…a big thank you for all the support at the Christmas Fayre. Enjoyed meeting and talking to the visitors to Ruddington.” Ryan Charlesworth of Project Body UK tweeted “Amazing to see so many people at the Club yesterday for the Ruddington Fayre. We would like to offer our congratulations to John and the team.”
Not everyone was satisfied with the arrangements. Julia Towers of Julia’s Kitchen tweeted “Ruddington Christmas Market fail! Cupcake stand outside a cake shop, coffee van outside a coffee shop, burger van outside a takeaway! Unhappy.” Sam Houghton commented “A warning sign at Kirk Lane traffic lights would have been good as I needed to drive a recovery lorry through the village and approaching from Bradmore there was no indication anything was happening in the village until I got to the Framebreakers and was met with total chaos. Looked a good event but had I known I’d have gone a totally different route to get to Clifton Road.” There were also complaints that the Navy 3 bus was unable to serve the village centre due to the closure of High Street – although The Green 10 service was able to access The Green and Church Street to bring visitors in via a diversionary route.
Meantime, as festivities continued outside beneath the Christmas lights on our village streets, inside there was stocking-making at the Framework Knitters’ Museum and the White Horse Inn hosted its’ own array of stalls and entertainment.
Some revellers stayed on into the evening to make the most of Ruddington’s many pubs, restaurants and takeaways to continue their #RuddyGoodDayOut.
Here’s to the next event in 2017!
