The dust sheet
Forty years in the barn.
Gallopers arrive under canvas, usually rained on, occasionally nested in. The sheet comes off and every horse is numbered, photographed and measured before anyone touches a scraper.
Fairground restoration & carousel hire Blackpool
Every horse deserves a second gilding.
We restore travelling steam gallopers by hand, and hire them out for weddings, festivals and long afternoons of tea and scones. Come and watch one wake up.
Scroll to start the restoration
01 Stripping and painting
Stripping and painting
Stripped
Down to the grain.
Eleven coats of paint is not unusual. We lift them with warm air, scalpels and patience, and read the horse underneath: old repairs, the carver's pencil marks, a sweet wrapper from 1953.
Primed and painted
Six coats, no shortcuts.
Pink primer first, then thin coats of lacquer rubbed back between each one. The livery is matched to a scrap of the original or chosen fresh. A good horse takes three weeks to cure properly.
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02 Gold leaf
Gold leaf
Size
A sticky start.
The carved parts, mane, tail, bridle and rosettes, are painted with red clay bole and then brushed with size that stays tacky for twenty minutes. After that, the moment has gone.
Leaf
Thinner than a breath.
Each leaf is lifted on a squirrel-hair tip and laid down with a sigh. No draughts are allowed in the gilding bay. Wilf wears a scarf indoors all year round, and nobody mentions it.
Burnish
Then we make it shine.
An agate stone rubbed over the bole until it glows through and the carving catches every bulb. Gaps are patched until nobody, including Wilf, can find them.
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03 The bulbs
The bulbs
Wiring
Six hundred sockets.
The ride is rewired round the old brass: new cable, new sockets, the original switchgear tested and kept. Every ring of bulbs has its own fuse, so one dud never darkens the canopy.
The chase
Bottom to top.
Lamps come on in sequence from the deck edge up to the finial. The old showmen called it warming the ride, and a crowd would gather just to watch it happen.
Switch on
Dusk, and she is lit.
Mirrors, gilding, painted boards and scalloped canopy all catch the light and throw it back across the field. It is the part we do not charge extra for.
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04 The ride turns
The ride turns
Doors open
Out into the evening.
The barn walls go back and the ride is bolted down on the field, poles set true, platform level to a spirit bubble. A crew of four does it in an afternoon.
The organ
Strike up the band.
The barrel organ plays through its folded cardboard book: a polka, a waltz, and something that might be Gilbert and Sullivan. Turn the Sound pill on and it plays for you.
Full gallop
Round we go.
The horses rise and fall on their brass poles, three bobs to every revolution. At full speed the ride turns nearly five times a minute, which is quite fast enough.
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05 Your ride
Design your ride.
Then watch it run.
Pick a livery, choose how many horses, set the speed and the colour of the bulbs. The gallopers change as you go.
Livery
Bulbs
- Livery
- Oxblood chestnut
- Horses
- 10
- Day hire from
- £1,260
Drag the ride to look around
06 The small print
Built to last, lit to dazzle.
- Workshop founded
- 0
- by Wilf Ashworth, in a former tram shed
- Horses restored
- 0
- from eleven rides, some of them twice
- Bulbs on a full ride
- 0
- and a spare drawer of three hundred
- Gold leaves a horse
- 0
- 23.5 carat, laid by hand
07 What it costs
Three ways to get on.
Restorations
from £1,850 a horse
- Strip, repair, prime, paint and re-gild
- Written condition report with photographs
- Whole rides from £48,000
- Collection and return within 150 miles
- Five-year paint guarantee
Hire for weddings and events
from £1,260 a day
- Ten-horse gallopers, rolled in and set up by us
- Two attendants and the barrel organ included
- Lit from dusk until the last guest leaves
- Needs one 16 amp supply and a flat 12 metre square
- Weekend dates go early, so ask in good time
Ride-and-tea days
£24 a head
- Three rides each on a restored galloper
- Tea, scones and jam in the barn
- A guided look round the workshop
- Groups of twelve or more, Tuesday to Saturday
- £19 for children under twelve
Invented prices for a concept page. VAT shown where it applies, in real life.
08 Enquire
Ask about a ride.
Tell us what you have in mind and Wilf or Priya will write back within two working days. Bring a photograph if you have a horse that needs a home.
Thank you. We will check the diary and write back within two working days. Put the kettle on, there is always one on in the barn.
09 Visit the barn
Come and see the horses.
Gallopers & Gold
The Old Tram Shed, Lytham Road Arches
Blackpool FY4 0XX
01253 555 0142
hello@gallopersandgold.example
The Old Tram Shed, Lytham Road Arches
Blackpool FY4 0XX
01253 555 0142
hello@gallopersandgold.example
- Tuesday to Friday
- 10 to 4
- Saturday
- 10 to 2, tea served
- Sunday and Monday
- Closed, we are at a fair