Desert Island Doc: In the air at Goram Fair

Our staff and invited guests introduce their favourite documents from the Bristol Archives collections. For this edition, Dave Williams, Archives Assistant has chosen a photograph of Acrobats at Goram Fair, Blaise Estate in the late 1950s.

This photograph, taken at Goram Fair in the late 1950s, brings back vivid memories of my visit there as a five year old. I didn’t see these acrobats with their ‘aeroplane’ but I remember they had a ‘motorbike’ up there in the year I saw them.

I also distinctly recall that there was a platform at least 50 feet up a wobbly ladder, from where someone executed dives into a huge water tank below. He ended the show by putting a film of oil on the surface of the water, setting it alight and diving into the flames. It certainly impressed one five year old boy.

The photo, with many others taken at the fair, form just a small portion of thousands of photographs taken by the Council’s Public Relations Office. The collection has images from the 1930s to the early 1970s on subjects like housing, buildings, events, public health and leisure.

Following a recent digitisation project , all of the images from the collection can be seen at the media PC in our public search room. You are welcome to book an hour and browse through the collection, as well as other collections of photographs and films.

The reference number for this document is 40826/LEI/13/14.