Antiquing at Ardingly

 

Today we had the day off from work and we went over to Ardingly to visit the antique's fair, which is the largest in the South East of England. They are run regularly for two days each time and they sell all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

I have wanted to visit for many, many years so I was excited and intrigued. We decided to visit on the first day of the antiques fair as we thought the second day might have less treasures however I feel that this might be more relevant to the die hard antique hunters who really are after those one of a kind items.

I paid the £20 entry fee begrudgingly, I feel like that is a lot of money to pay to go shopping! And the Wednesday is only £5 entry fee. You can find more details about tickets on their website here

We got to the fair for 9.30am and stalls were still setting up but it was already very busy. I couldn't get over how big this place is, it was like visiting a town, I'm not sure if we saw every stall but we tried very hard to! 

There was so much variety, I thought some of the stalls might be a bit 'samey' but we saw all sorts. We were mainly looking for a few bits for the garden and agreed that we would only buy things that we truly loved. 

As it turned out, we came away with a pair of old classic tennis rackets for £5 each (I really like tennis so I felt these were cool things to purchase), three galavnised tubs/buckets for the garden, an old soil sieve, a compass, a globe light for Mr Poachie's office, some old medicinal bottles, a dundee marmalade jar (yes I am an insta cliche) and a champagne box for the garden. 

They are all a bit random and totally non essential items, but I do feel your home is an extension of you and should reflect who you are. I could have spent so much more money today but I think the only thing I regret not buying was some old Olympus camera's. 

When we have a bigger house, I will definitely return to fill it up with more wonderful pieces from places like this. We recently visited Lewes as they have lots of antique shops and a flea market, I am starting to get an understanding of what things cost now (anything galvanised costs more than you expect!) you can read that post here

We loved these little bottles and the labels. They were all medicinal bottles so we bought a couple and Mr Poachie bought a POISON bottle!

I really like these little pocket watches, they remind me of the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. I think I have a love for any type of intricate metal; I love door furniture, clocks, compasses, cameras, locks... I think they are really interesting to look at.

I also love the old fashioned tins and labels, again when we have a bigger house I think I would like a busy kitchen with lots of old signs and tin boxes.

Some items here were quite expensive for what they were, I was hoping to buy a real barn star but the smallest star was priced at £18 going up to £40 and I just thought it was too much money. I was also hoping to find a classic train set as I want to set one up this year going around the bottom of the Christmas tree but we didn't see one.

After a whopping FIVE hours of shopping, we stopped for something to eat. There were numerous food stalls about and we opted for a bratswurst, it was yummy and really hit the spot after a hard days shopping!

Some advice I would give if you do go, dress accordingly. Many of the stalls are outdoors and off the road/footpaths so I opted for wellies and was glad I did. 

If you can, park near an entrance gate, as we bought some heavy items we had to go back to the car 2/3 times to free up our hands. We saw some people had garden trollies with them which was a good idea. 

Have a clear idea of what you are looking for, it can be quite overwhelming with the amount of different items on offer. I had in my head a list of things I wanted, admittedly we did come back with some random items that wasn't planned but we really liked them and felt the prices were good.

Don't be afraid to ask for a discount, we managed to save a few pounds off most of the items that we bought. I guess the stallholders expect it and most were really friendly. 

Have fun! Shopping isn't my favourite way to spend a day but I did enjoy the hunt and the thrill of finding a bargain and now I have some cool pieces in my home that I love!