Fairground Heritage Trust Arcade

[Devonslots]

Running a vintage Arcade.
I am a trustee of the Fairground Heritage Trust. We have an arcade at the Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre, near Okehampton in Devon.
It is housed in a former travelling Arcade, 'Percival's Palace of Pleasure'.
We have a Bryans Payramid, Clock and 12 or so allwins.
1970s Streets and Cromptons and one Pintable.
I am keen to put in some more bandits to augment a pair of Aristocrat Arcadians on 1p.
I have donated a Sega Copper Star on 1p.
We have also recently had a donation of a Jennings Governor with perspex sides, on old 5p.
Could be easily converted to the current 10P?
What do you think will be the most reliable bandit to use? Many of our visitors are kids, and not used to such machines.
All suggestions gratefully received.
Photos at https://www.fairground-heritage.org.uk

[treefrog]

Pretty impressive set-up there and some nice historic fairground machines and trailers....

Given the question around modern coinage, I assume this is the preference. The easiest machines available are thing like Jubilee Riviera's and Aristocrats and there are loads around on modern coinage, 1p, 2p and 10p and they are very reliable. Jennings and Mills less common to get this, although people like Henry Powell do convert them, but they are pricey.
The German machines do not often come on modern coinage, although there is one on ebay at the moment on 1p, very unusual, very bright (kids will love it) and cheap £40. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT
What about pushers? Kids love them and multi pushers on modern coinage are very cheap.

[badpenny]

Welcome to the forum Devonslots, interesting place you've got there, looking forward to hearing more from you.

Regards

Badpenny

[arrgee]

Blimey, that's changed quite a bit since we took our kids there years ago, will certainly look you up Devonslots when we visit Devon in September.

[Devonslots]

Thanks for your suggestions.
Yes, our preference is for current coins,we have two change machines.
Aristocrats and Jubilees are front opening, so I suppose, easier to get at.
The Arcadians are reliable, but not the most attractive of bandits (only my opinion).
The Sega is a great looking 60s machine. We had a photo shoot for Republic, the fashion chain, recently and the photographer (in his late 20s, thought it "amazing!")
Hope it does not give too many problems as our season starts this weekend.
We also have a couple of pushers and a Steer a Coin (very popular).
We are seeking more Brenco machines to go with the Wheel of Fortune, as they were made at Weston Super Mare, so fairly local.
The place was expanded 3 years ago with a 25,000 sq ft building that houses a complete working vintage fair, much in demand for fashion shoots and the occasional music video.
Apart from 2 full time staff, it is manned by volunteers.

[arrgee]

I would urge forum members to take a look at the website, there are many old photos and most of the black & white images are fantastically evocative of a never-to-return era of pure amusement. I remember from my own childhood that fairgrounds etc would attract many people and our own town would close off whole streets to accommodate the fair, but some of these photos show enormous crowds, certainly a hey-day for the travelling showman.

[malcymal]

Pretty impressive set-up there and some nice historic fairground machines and trailers....
The German machines do not often come on modern coinage, although there is one on ebay at the moment on 1p, very unusual, very bright (kids will love it) and cheap £40. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

I have two German electro mechanical wall-machines on 10 Pfennig and they will both accept 1 new pence or 20p coin.

[Devonslots]

We have one Beromat, converted from old penny to 2p.
German machines are interesting and colourful, and don't take up much space.
Thanks for the tip on being able to substitute German coins for 20p.

We need the arcade to provide interactive entertainment for all ages, put the fairground rides in context, i.e., being "side" attractions and, of course, provide an income stream.
It is among our most popular attractions with both visitors, photographers and film makers.

[jimmycowman]

Topic copied & moved from Dingles Heritage Centre - Site Admin.

Plenty of fairground artwork for auction. Dingles Heritage Auction... Does anyone know if it's permanently closed?

[ab88]

The Fairground Heritage Trust and Dingles Fairground Museum have not folded, and are in no imminent danger of doing so.

The pandemic has been particularly challenging and has also involved moving from the old buildings to a new one on the end of the Rides Hall. In March this year the Trust also lost the use of all on site storage facilites.

As such the opportunity has been taken to re-establish the defunct annual Vintage Auction (with new auctioneer Ed Buckland) and reduce significantly the stored items on site. Much of what is being sold has never been displayed or catalogued and was never likely to be. All key pieces are being retained and nothing else will be sold (nor can it be if formally part of the collection)

The good news for the slot machine fans is that the arcade is now built up in the new building and at its full length (10ft longer than before) and that in time a slot machine sub committee will be set up to look at improving the selection of machines on display, all of which will be playable. A foursquare, fortune teller and crane were added to the Trust collection over the summer to supplement the existing loan and collection items on display.

The aim is to ultimately have a good cross sections of makes and types, and possibly in time some more 'modern' video games. Time never stops moving forward, so neither can we!

Les Coddington (who is on here somewhere) is our resident tinkerer and fixer of machines, and we welcome other volunteers around the museum going forward.

If anyone would like to know more, just PM me. If you check out the Dingles Facebook page you'll see recent photos of the arcade going up, though it won't be accessible at this weekend's auction. We will reopen in April 2022.