Groby Street Fair

On this page - Wilde about music and art/ Street Fair to support Children's Holiday charity

June 2019

Wilde about music and art

Some people are good at helping people to improve their technique when playing a musical instrument. Others are good at helping people discover that they have an artistic talent and they can paint better than they ever thought possible. Mark Wilde goes one step further – he can do both. Mark, who started his weekly guitar group and a class on watercolour painting back in 2001, will be showing both sides of his artistic talent at the 2019 Groby Street Fair on Sunday 23 June.

The Tuesdays Guitar Group

“The Groby Tuesdays Guitar Group has carried on ever since and has had many changes over the years, with new members, material, etc,” he said. “The group is aimed at people who have some basic understanding of guitar playing but need to improve by playing with others. I try to make the class feel as if we are in a real band and so we strive to do performances in front of audiences regularly.”

Some of the group have played longer than others and it now has 14 members all at different levels. “I arrange the material in a way that everyone can fit in. Some people do strumming, some do the harder lead bits, some play bass, some sing.” The group, which does a variety of material from suggestions from the members themselves, and meets at Groby Village Hall in term time on Tuesday evenings at 7pm, will be appearing at the Street Fair at 1.30pm.

The Painting Classes

Mark's painting classes also meet at Groby Village Hall throughout the week. “I have beginners and intermediate classes,” he explained. “In the classes I describe and demonstrate the various techniques used in the traditional approach to watercolour painting. Step by step demos and one to one tuition are features of the courses which are run in a friendly workshop atmosphere. We have a exhibition coming up on 13-14 July at the Markfield Retirement Village.”

One of Marke's students, who was persuaded by a friend to join his art class, described it as “ a thoroughly enjoyable class in a friendly relaxed atmosphere.” She added that “The only things I had painted in my life were fences, sheds, walls and doors. I always believed I had no artistic talent whatsoever, but by week two I produced a painting worthy of a frame. Some of the paintings I've created I can't believe, neither can my son and daughter. When I show the pictures to them, they think someone else painted them and I'm pretending they're mine!”

If you want to know more about his classes or want to see Mark in action he will be demonstrating his painting talent at the Street Fair at 12.30 pm. He can also be contacted on 07757 010982 or through his Facebook pages.

April 2019

Groby Street Fair to support Children's Holiday charity

Groby Street Fair has announced that this year's Fair, on June 23 2019, will support the Leicester Children's Holidays charity. Just like the charity the Street Fair relies on external funding and sponsorship to help make it viable, so it is unable to make a financial contribution to this worthwhile cause. The organisers feel, however, that with up to a third of residents set to attend the Fair it will provide a great platform for the charity to raise awareness of it's activities and for visitors to talk to representatives about the work they do. This won't be a fund raising initiative and visitors will not be asked for cash or pledges.

The charity is better known for the Leicester Children's Holiday Centre in Mablethorpe. When it closed in 2018 it was the end of an era, and many wrongly thought it was the end of the charity. This is not the case : the increasing costs of maintaining an ageing building may have forced closure, but the need to provide holidays and opportunities for children to build confidence whilst having fun has not gone away. “The holidays are for children who may be disadvantaged for a number of reasons, which may be financially or emotionally or for a different reason,” said a spokesperson for the charity. “Whatever the reason the children all really need this holiday. We support children across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. From 2013-2018, 57% children nominated were from Leicester and 43% were from Leicestershire and Rutland. "

In 1896 Leicester Boys’ Club opened at 22 Newarke Street, and two years later Alderman Wakerley, the Mayor, called a public meeting to discuss a week’s holiday by the sea for boys who attended the clubs. Leicester Poor Boys’ Summer Camp Association was founded. At the Bank Holiday in early August, the first group of boys went camping in tents on the sand hills at Mablethorpe. Girls need holidays too, and in 1900 they joined the boys for the first time, in a purpose built wooden building. The boys continued to sleep in tents, but in 1908 a Boys’ Home was built in Mablethorpe, next to the Girls’ Home. In 1910 an Open Air School for weak and sickly children was opened by the Education Committee in the holiday homes in the autumn, after the summer season ended.

In 1919 holidays re-commenced after being suspended during the First World War, with the next major development in 1937 : the permanent holiday centre for both boys and girls opened on the sandhills at Mablethorpe. In 1951 children from the County of Leicestershire began to go to Mablethorpe and by the time financial pressures forced the closure of the holiday home 67,000 children had benefited.

The work of the charity goes on, but now the money raised goes into providing experiences for the children instead of costly building maintenance. In 2018 the first party of 20 Leicester children were taken by the renamed Leicester Children’s Holidays charity on an exciting adventure holiday at Hilltop, Sheringham. This year it will be 40 children, and next year the target is 80. At £391 per child for 5 days holiday the charity clearly needs the continuing support of the people of Leicestershire.

“Our children’s holidays are about so much more than spending time away from home,” the charity website explains. “They’re about having fun, making friends, trying new things and learning through play. The Hilltop Outdoor Centre in Sheringham has spent years crafting the perfect adventure holiday package, with activities that everyone can enjoy – from climbing walls and rope courses to archery and the brand new Air Jump; the 1^st activity of its kind on England!”

“The holiday centre will always hold a special place in the hearts of all the children who visited it as well as the staff and volunteers that made it all possible,” said Borough Councillor Martin Cartwright. He raised £3000 for the charity, enough for a week for 7 children at current prices, in his year as Mayor of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. His fundraising included a 120 mile cycle ride wearing the Mayoral chain from his home in Groby to the Children's Holiday Centre in Mablethorpe.

A spokesperson for the Street Fair said “Although we are unable to give financial help we see from our own event the pleasure that the experience gives the children who visit us for just a few hours. The work of the Leicester Children’s Holidays charity has always been important and we are happy to be able to give those residents who would like to know more the opportunity to do it without pressure in the informal atmosphere of the Street Fair.”

The former Groby woman who spotted a gap in the chocolate market

For one former Groby woman the opportunity to participate in the Street Fair was of particular importance. You may have seen Louise Lester's stall selling chocolate products outside the church and if you stopped to talk she may have told you about the day she was on the other side of the wall as she walked up the aisle to take her marriage vows. “I loved coming back,” said Louise. “I saw lots of people who I knew from school and around Groby as I grew up, and it was also very special to be back in Groby on my 22nd wedding anniversary.”

Like most other Groby youngsters her school life started at Elizabeth Woodville Primary, where she remembers planting a tree in the grounds for the Queens Silver Jubilee. Then it was on to Brookvale and the Community College followed by nurse training at Charles Frear's School of Nursing. She left Groby in 1991 when she married and currently has a very demanding job as a specialist school nurse working with children in the city who have emotional, behavioural and mental health problems.

For many people eating chocolate is a stress buster, but Louise goes one step further and creates her own chocolate delights. “I've always loved chocolate and cooking,” she explained, “so I combined the two after having a go at making my own chocolate decorations for a cake I was making. I'd found the prices being charged were extortionate and discovered there was a gap for high quality hand crafted chocolate at reasonable prices. I did my research and enjoyed finding a supplier who provides me with really good Belgian chocolate and I was taught how to temper the different sorts. It's far more complex than I thought.” Tempering controls the crystallisation of the cocoa butter so that only consistently small crystals are produced, resulting in much better-quality chocolate.

She has about 20-25 different moulds but adds more constantly, trying to find moulds to meet individual requests and have seasonal as well as all year round sellers. So currently it's the Christmas moulds that are getting the most use.

Louise (née Louise Bowater) sells at craft fairs, street fairs,food and fresh produce fairs as well as by word of mouth, and a riding school shop. She's also done a couple of weddings making favours for the bride and groom and has a page on facebook( Bemysweetie).

Her children are the chief tasters so if you are thinking of volunteering to be a taster please go to the back of the queue. “I do on average 10 - 15 fairs a year with peak times being spring and Christmas,” added Louise. “I have to draft in my husband and mum to help on the stalls. My profit margin is small but I am very lucky to be doing two things I love – I love being a nurse and I love chocolate!”

UPDATE 2021 - Louise has been very busy with her nursing career and given up chocolate sales .

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