Henwick Primary School Summer Fair 2016
Report written by Chris Warrell for our Autumn 2016 Newsletter
Saturday 16 July 2016
Henwick Primary School
Eltham
One benefit of attending the Greenwich Great Get Together was a last minute invitation to the Henwick Primary School Summer Fair on 16th July. The school is in Eltham, not far from the Well Hall roundabout, and only 10 minutes walk from my house! It was, it transpired, their first fair (or the first for a few years) and there were the usual side shows and stalls arranged around the playground.
We were located in the dinner hall, ironically since the weather was warm and sunny; our previous two events had us outside, under canvas, with varying amounts of heavy rain.
Our tables and the ‘Make It With Meccano’ workshop, here being supervised by Les
There were five members attending and all turned up with a good selection of models, not all listed here, but each of us filling a table.
Les Chatfield brought, amongst other things, a tower crane; both Chris Fry and Peter Clay had Meccanographs; Tim Surtell had his Lightning Leap and I had my pontoon crane. Les had a remote control car which was very popular with the children, and the two Meccanographs, almost side-by-side, had a regular audience waiting to have a go at producing a design. Tim’s buzz-wire game hasn’t lost any of its appeal and my crane had no shortage of willing drivers. I could have done with a limit switch of some sort to prevent the regular over running of the hook.
Les Chatfield demonstrating a model
Tim was also in charge of the Make It With Meccano workshop, something that the organisers were keen for us to run. He brought four Meccano sets with instructions for three models. Four tables were arranged in the centre of our L-shaped display and, in total, around twenty certificates were handed out to those who completed a model. Plenty of other children had a go, but gave up after a while and others had to have help from mum and dad. Most of us helped out at some point with supervision of this activity.
The design department, courtesy of Chris Fry and Peter Clay
The day was quite short, being only three hours long (12:00 noon — 3:00 pm) so no chance of getting exhausted by the constant stream of visitors. We each got a lunch voucher, and teas were very reasonably priced at 50p — there were some very moreish rocky road cakes too!
Two satisfied Make It With Meccano workshop participants show off their certificates
One early visitor to our stand was local Labour MP Clive Efford, who seemed in jovial mood, despite all the turmoil in Westminster! Linda, the organiser, was pleased with the way the day went, so I think we’ll get an invitation to next year’s one. We made sure plenty of flyers were handed out. Thanks to all the members who attended.
Having fun in the Make It With Meccano workshop
You can see more photos from the Make It With Meccano workshop in our Facebook album.