UK Christmas Markets

For anyone visiting Bishop Auckland, County Durham this weekend 

http://www.aucklandcastle.org/events/christmas-food-craft-market/

I came across it by accident while walking the dog in Auckland Castle park this afternoon and fortunately didn't have any cash on me as the smells from some of the food stalls were lovely.

The main stalls seemed to be within a massive marquee, where dogs weren't allowed, so I'm not able to comment on the products or quality. 

It's a lovely setting made even nicer by this afternoon's sun......

Thinking of visiting Bath Christmas market with the motorhome. The marina campsite looks pretty full, probably with the market stall holders, suggest you check availability

Redwink wrote:Thinking of visiting Bath Christmas market with the motorhome. The marina campsite looks pretty full, probably with the market stall holders, suggest you check availability

We have booked next Monday and Tuesday nights at the marina campsite. It is not so busy on weekdays. Most people visit at the weekends.

Just as well your not pitched tonight, Wessex water plan to work through the night by the campsite

Not taking the van but going to have a look at Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre
only on for this coming weekend hoping it will be a bit more festive than the "Big City" ones that go on for s few weeks
Anybody been?
David

Heanorboy wrote:Not taking the van but going to have a look at Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre
only on for this coming weekend hoping it will be a bit more festive than the "Big City" ones that go on for s few weeks
Anybody been?
David

http://www.christmasinworcester.com/
This might interest you if you're coming to Worcester. I've only been once but it has got very big since I went. Enjoy yourselves.

Thanks for that, son lives in Wombourne but may be looking to move to Worcester shortly so meeting up with them in Worcester with  our 2 year old grandson

Had a good day at Worcester today well worth the visit if you fancy a Christmas Market this weekend.
David

Went to Llandudno one last weekend. About 50 outdoor stalls , all food or drink except for 3 and two large marquees housing the rest but they wanted £2 each to enter. I object to paying when the stallholders have already paid for their pitch. Looking through the entrance you could see more food stalls so we didn't bother added to the fact you had to queue to get in for about 15 mins in bitter cold wind.

Yes !! I'm afraid the money grabbing people, who hire out the pitches, kill it every time, with their ridiculous additional entrance fee..........greedy, stupid, twits.
Some people can't help themselves....grab, grab, grab...........

logburner wrote:Yes !! I'm afraid the money grabbing people, who hire out the pitches, kill it every time, with their ridiculous additional entrance fee..........greedy, stupid, twits.    
Some people can't help themselves....grab, grab, grab...........

must say that we did not find this at Worcester almost all the stalls were in the streets the funfair prices were less than you have to pay at Weston super mud in the summer, coffee prices around £2.00 and we didnt have to pay any fees to go into the halls etc
David

NORGIL wrote:The Birmingham markets last year had quite a few stalls. from my perspective mostly selling tat, but the reason we won't be going this year is the number of stalls selling alcohol of various types. On the day we went, by early afternoon there were several groups who were obviously the worse for wear and somewhat raucous which made the atmosphere feel quite unpleasant.

norgil

We have just got back from a few days in Birmingham. We stayed in a city centre hotel very close to the market. This market is the biggest we have been to in the UK and does compare well in "feel" to many of the German ones. Most of the "craft" stalls now sell cheaper versions of what we used to see which implies to me that they have moved from low volume, possibly hand made to mass produced products. I would say there was about 50/50 split between food & drink to craft and we enjoyed our visit.

HOWEVER, Birmingham city is very noisy with apparently a strong drinking mob culture. Our hotel was in the Wetherspoons chain (I didn't know they did hotels) which itself had crowds of loud people below our bedroom window, fortunately 5 floors below, well past midnight. The crowds in the market also got noticeably larger and drunker as the evening went on. While it wasn't so bad that we felt threatened I wasn't upset that we had seen enough to go back to the hotel early evening.

Birmingham next Sat & Sun in a hotel! & travel by train with our 2 together card

roli wrote:Birmingham next Sat & Sun in a hotel! & travel by train with our 2 together card

We used our oldies London travel cards and our oldies National rail cards for a fare of £3.60 each way for each of us from South London. Certainly worth booking train tickets in advance.