THIS IS AN OLD WEBPAGE
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BECOMING AN ANNUAL EVENT!

Local residents and regular visitors to Tetbury will know that one of the joys of living in this part of the world is having the world-famous Westonbirt Arboretum just a few miles away. It's a pleasure to walk there at any time of year (as long as the weather is reasonably dry) and it brings a great deal of business to Tetbury, particularly during the autumn when the maple leaves are at their most colourful.

This is also the time of year that the British Red Cross hold a two-day fair at Westonbirt School, right across the road from the Arboretum. The school used to be a private house where the Victorian founder of the Arboretum lived - it is a magnificent building with many wood-panelled rooms and gilded ceilings. The grounds were even used, a few years ago, to film an edition of 'The Antiques Roadshow'.

We were first asked three years ago to take a stall at the Red Cross Fair and have enjoyed doing this ever since. We take a selection of our cheeses but, because it is too early to buy these as Christmas presents, we take many non-cheese items which people can purchase as gifts. There are plentiful samples of almost everything and people seem to enjoy browsing along our table and forgetting to watch their waistlines as they indulge themselves.

The fair is very hard work and requires many hours of preparation. On the first day we normally start setting up at 7.30 a.m. when it is still dark and this year we were so busy that we had to work until 8 that night to prepare cheese for the second day. However, no one minds if the hard work pays off and the sales figures are good at the end of the fair! And they were - which is good news all round as ten per cent of all our takings are donated towards the Red Cross, as well as the fee we pay for the stall.

Needless to say, we are looking forward to next year's Fair  ...  it's not only the chance to do a little extra business and to donate something towards a good cause, but it's an opportunity to work in a lovely setting and to meet up with other stallholders selling everything from wine to widgets, from jardinières to jewellery, and from china to cuddly toys. So if you want a really great day out towards the end of October next year, how does the following sound - a browse around the fair for early Christmas shopping, lunch at one of our excellent local pubs,  and a brisk walk round the Arboretum followed by a visit to our shop to stock up with edible treats? Sounds pretty good to me!