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THE JOHN BARKER COLLECTION

This special gallery shows the superb collection of fairground artefacts built up over the past thirty years by John Barker. The collection is a private one, and has never been publicly exhibited; we are indebted to John for his kind permission to use these images.

The items in John's collection are all original (no replicas!) and have been restored to a very high standard by specialist woodcarver and decorator Phil Babb. In many cases, the provenance of the item is known, although there are a few omissions, and any assistance with further information will be gratefully received - please e-mail.

If you would like to contact Phil Babb, please e-mail by clicking on this link.

	This pair of Anderson dobby horses are from a small hand-turned children's ride, dating from the turn of the last Century. Although similar, they do have minor differences between them.
The next pair of mounts are a chicken (right) and a cockerel (below) originally carved by C J Spooner of Burton on Trent around 1895. They were made for a set of Gallopers owned by George "Cocker" Beach which opened for most of their time at Kew Bridge. A similar unrestored mount from the same ride can be seen in the collection at Dingles Steam Village (see inset).

	The photograph above clearly demonstrates the way in which the heads of this type of mount were designed to fold, to facilitate packing. The poultry mounts can plainly be seen in the image (left) of George Beach's Gallopers at Kew Bridge (courtesy FHT collection), along with the Spooner dragons, horses and ostriches which were also fitted to the ride.
Probably the most important piece in John's collection is this wonderful C J Spooner Centaur. These were perhaps the most innovative of all Charles Spooner's creations, and were first produced at the time of the Boer War (1899-1902), depicting some of the great military figures of the time. Popular ones were Lord Roberts, General Buller, General Baden-Powell, General Sir George White, and General French.

The example in John's collection is based on the last of these: General John French, pictured right, and was previously owned by the renowned American collector, Charlotte Dinger.

Like many of the other larger or difficult shaped galloper mounts, the Centaurs can be dismantled for the purposes of packing (see below, left).

	Spooner produced a number of sets of Centaurs, including those for Tubys, Wilmots, Powells (below, left) and John Barker - no relation! (below; both photos courtesy FHT collection). John doesn't know with which set this mount was originally used.

Next we come to three ornately carved Anderson horses, all believed to have come from the set of three-abreast Gallopers travelled by Charles Holland. The trio represent a complete row from the ride: consisting of an outer row horse (right), a middle row (below), and an inner row (below, right).

	The horses would have been carved around 1910, by Arthur Anderson, the Bristol-based woodcarver, and feature some of his trademark features, such as the large buckle on the girth, and the Scarlet Lychnis flower - symbol of Bristol - on the bridle. Charles Holland's Gallopers are pictured, showing the mounts, (left) at Sutton in Ashfield in 1937. The mounts remained with the ride, through various changes of ownership, until replaced with fibreglass ones in the 1970s.
Returning to some further examples of Charles Spooner's fine work, we have two outside row double seater horses of unknown origin. The slightly less ornate horse seen right is probably a little earlier (c1910) than the more elaborately carved example (c1920), below.

The final example of Spooner carving from the collection is this figure (right) from a steam switchback, believed to depict one of the wives of Henry VIII. A figure of the same type is shown left, from Walter Murphy's Savage-built machine - also shown above right. The figure probably dates from the period 1890-1900.

	The final mount from the collection, and the sole representative of the work of Savages of Kings Lynn, is this outside row double seater horse. Dating from around 1920, and showing the characteristic drooping tongue, this mount came fromJohn Downs' three abreast Gallopers, previously Cushi Manning's (see below). The redecoration was carried out by well-known artist John Pockett.
This newly restored rounding board (below) is from the set which Butlins had at Ayr. The roundings were fitted to the set around 1942 when in the ownership of Bert Searle, and originally came from a set owned by Smith & Warren. The ride was sold to Joe Stevens at the end of the 1955 season, and passed to Butlins at Ayr a few years later.

Left: detail of the carved work on the board. Below: Bert Searles' Gallopers, Tooting Bec Common, June 1951 (courtesy FHT collection).

The signs say it all!

Two shields painted by Charles Duffield of Colchester make a fitting conclusion to this special feature showing the John Barker collection.

Special thanks to John Barker for his help in compiling this page, and for the use of many of the images.

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