TOYTOWN JUVENILE RIDE & THE CARS AND BIKES RIDE

'Toytown' is a rare platform ride made by Halstead of Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, in around 1930. Showmen used to adapt old style animal roundabouts to be more up-to-the-minute using pedal cars, and this ride had a number of them, but some of them had been replaced with modern fibreglass cars.

When John Carter bought it from Johnny Connolly in 1988, he placed an ad in the World's Fair asking for old pedal cars, and to his amazement he ended up with over 80 vintage cars. "I wish I had a photo of John when he came home in his pickup with piles of tin cars lashed to it!" Anna laughs. He began to restore the cars, giving them a thorough going-over and new paintwork.

John had so many rare pedal cars that he ended up using the pre-war cars on an adapted dobbie lot (an old style roundabout without a platform), also made by the famous makers Halstead of Sowerby Bridge. Cars & Bikes, as it's known, is a bit smaller than Toytown, and is available for hire.