The Hoppings

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen

The travelling fair that visits Newcastle upon Tyne’s Town Moor every year, the largest in Europe, photographed by founder Amber member in the early 1970s.

Konttinen wrote: ‘I first came across The Hoppings when the sideshows still boasted such live showpieces as sheep with four horns, giants, dwarfs – and women. The latter were displayed in booths eight feet square: Palace of Continental Dreams, The Nude Look, Vampyre’s Daughter, The Living Half Woman, Fanny by Lamplight, Midnight Madness, Nipper the Stripper. The Hoppings is a traditional meet for most of the itinerant fair people of Great Britain. Starting in the late eighteenth century it was originally held in conjunction with Newcastle Races, but now it alone occupies the Town Moor for one week every June.

All images © Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen

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