All that glitters and moves .......... the roundabout

I have to confess that I have never been a fan of any roundabouts.

They make me feel ill.  They did when I was a youngster and they still do, which has precluded me from going on those ones in the playground of old parks and the shinny, glittering ones you get at fairgrounds.

I haven’t seen those simple roundabouts of my youth for a long time.  They had a platform, with a circle iron bar and you worked them by pushing them and then when there was sufficient momentum you jumped on, and if you were me jumped straight off again feeling distinctly queasy and very giddy.

Along with the hobby horse, swings and see saw they were to found in almost all Corporation playgrounds when I was growing up, but not so now.

That said, I welcome any pictures and descriptions of locations of where they have survived.

A variation of the municipal roundabout, are those we have across in Greece and rural Italy, where you stand on a platform, hold on to a set of rails and the contraption is operated manually by an adult.

All small beer when compared to the big Merry-go-rounds or Carousels which are a mainstay of Fairs and big amusement parks.

Apparently they have their origin in medieval warfare, were developed in the 18th century into what we know today.

The first modern one was built by Thomas Bradshaw and appeared at the Alysham Fair in 1861.

The design was developed during the next two decades and evolved into what we know today, powered first by steam, then petrol and finally electricity.

They are best seen at night when all that gold and glitter stands out against the night sky, but on a hot May day with the sun shining down, all the sparkly stuff worked equally well.

This one had a permanent home in Trafford Centre where I photographed it during a Bank Holiday Monday.  

But alas the site has been redeveloped, leaving me to go looing for Merry-go-round.

Location; Trafford Centre

Pictures. The Merry-go-round, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson