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A visit to Glastonbury Wool Fair 2012

Last weekend, hubby and I went down to The Glastonbury Wool Festival which promotes English wool and its use.
Hubby with a useful leaning post!
We arrived in Glastonbury at 9:30am ready for the sheep to be run down the high street.  After a quick dash back to the car to get the forgotten camera by kind hubby (not the only time I sent him dashing back to the car that weekend!) we positioned ourselves in a suitable spot amongst the rapidly gathering crowds.
The well behaved Alpacas

 Just after 10am we caught our first glimpses of animals moving towards us and on further inspection we discovered that it was some Lamas on leads accompanied by their two owners.
The sheep making a run for it!
Following on behind in a rather less orderly fashion were a small group of sheep who were more intent on making a dash for it in any direction they could manage.  
Human intervention.
A couple of them had a munch of the flower displays en-route!  With the aid of a horizontal stick and 2 sheep dogs the herd were lead, to the bemusement of some uninformed shop keepers, down the High Street and into pens.
Dogs getting the sheep back in control


The sheep having finished munching the flower display!
The Town Cryer  following on behind
Opening the festival

 Shortly after the the Town Cryer introduced Bill T Skidmore, of the Worshipful Company of Wool Men to open the festival.


It was then time for a nearly orderly dash to the town hall where the all important stalls full of wonderful goodies were set out.














The first room we entered was full of exciting fleece and wools but hanging on to my purse I went into a bigger room with even more goodies!








The great wheel being demonstrated.
As in previous years there was a demonstration of a great wheel spinning wheel in the centre of the large hall.


I spent a couple of hours looking at all the wonderful things and chatting to stall holders.  In the end I was very good and just came away with some very fine hand carders and some wonderfully dyed batt.







               A lovely looking Spinning wheel - Little Gem 2
 I even spied a very nice spinning wheel, that even I, who is a spindle only girl, took a liking to.  The wood was lovely and the wheel a very slimmed down style.  Having seen the price it well and truly stayed on the stall!


When I had managed to drag myself away from the stalls we took a leisurely walk up a gentle slope and round a corner to the Somerset Rural Life Museum where we had a coffee and a look round their wonderful display.  Towards the end, in the yard were some demonstrations of basket making, spinning and felt making.  I managed to find a beautifully made small round basket to put my combed rovings in and after a chat with the spinners I was shown just how easy it is to make felt. I think I will try my hand at it, using up some of the wool not good enough to spin with which I seem to accumulating.

We noticed that there were seats arranged for the wool fashion show in the barn but with our tums rumbling we made our way back to the town for a wonderful lunch in the Egon Ronay recommended Rainbows End cafe tucked away in the High Street. If ever you find your way to Glastonbury it is a must place to visit. Every time we go we ensure we have at least one meal there. The food is divine and it's ALL vegetarian.  A great treat though beware the amount is often more than stomachs can handle!

In the evening there was also a mutton and nut roast but we missed this as I really prefer my sheep alive.

On the Sunday there was a rare breed show, sheep shearing and have a go opportunities which I'm afraid we didn't attend as I had by eyes on visiting John Leaches Pottery where I bought a wonderful bread crock and visiting some of the wonderful villages around this idyllic part of the world.


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