Strawberry Fayre
This short history of the Strawberry Fayre is compiled from local knowledge and facts passed down from those no longer with us.
Tamerton Foliot Methodist Church Fruit Banquet was subsequently called the Strawberry Feast and then the Strawberry Fayre as we know it today.
It used to be a Methodist Church Circuit affair which was started in 1922. All Church members used to give 10 shillings (50p) to help buy the food. Tea tickets would then be sold for 2 shillings 6 pence (12 and a half p).
Visitors used to help themselves to the strawberries and a dish of fruit salad was provided for those who did not like strawberries.
Sugar and cream was put on the tables for people to help themselves and there was also bread and butter, dough cake and cherry cake – a real feast.
Strawberries were bought from Mr BRIGHTON who had fields in Station Road, Tamerton Foliot and from Billy RICKARD who lived in ‘Woodlands’, Station Road, Tamerton Foliot. He had come from Denham, Bere Alston where he grew strawberries also. The house ‘Woodlands’ was built for him and in 1914 he cleared some of the land around the property and started strawberry fields here.
Later, when these sources ceased they were bought from Bere Alston growers and latterly from LUKES.
Various people gave cream and milk one of whom would have been Fred HENDY of ‘Cressy’ (now known as Cressy Cottage), Whitson Cross Lane, Tamerton Foliot who was a farmer and his wife, Polly, sold their milk and cream in a little dairy at the cottage. Bear in mind the village was not built up like today and was mainly a farming area.
Jack GREGORY provided/arranged the flowers for the tables.
Kate MADDOCK who lived in ‘Wisteria’ (above what is known as the naval estate) made coconut ice and Turkish delight. Kittie MADDOCK and her cousin Marion ADAMS (Kate’s nieces) sold the sweets at the feast/fayre.
Ben PARKIN’s parents owned West Trehills’ and when Ben and Kate married they built ‘Wisteria’ – so called because it sounded like West Trehills’ was sold to Mr LUKE years later.
After some years they had ice-cream from Pipers of Headland Park, Plymouth. They would bring out big containers of it. Kittie and Marion generated quite an income for the Church from this.
There was a flower stall possibly run by Kate. This stall, introduced later was not approved of by all as it was considered ‘commercial’. There was a tea committee with Lena GREGORY, Rose MADDOCK and no doubt several other helpers.
The banquet was always opened by the Mayor and Mayoress of Plymouth. After 1935 when the city was granted Lord Mayor status it was then the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Plymouth who opened the event. When it was teatime they sat at the ‘top table’ situated on the platform together with the Circuit Superintendent Minister, our own Minister and many Circuit Ministers and Church Stewards as they could accommodate. The schoolroom (the church hall had classrooms in it for those of you who can remember inside it) was filled with tables and no-one started tea until the ‘top table’ was seated. All were dressed in their Sunday-best like a Buckingham Palace Garden Party.
Apart from the teas, various gardens in the village were ‘open’ so people could see them and it passed the time until in the evening a concert was held. At the end of the concert the tea committee had to lay on refreshments for those taking part which made it a very busy day for everyone.
Devon Motor Transport, as it was then, put on extra buses for the banquet and they would be lined up in the village and return after the concert to take everyone home again.