Whitehead Victorian Street Fair: a photo-essay

I live in a smallish village in County Antrim in the north of Ireland. Whitehead has been around for some time - there’s a Jacobean plantation castle across from the pub, and my own cottage dates back to before 1845. But it was really with the coming of the railway in the late Victorian and Edwardian period that this ‘town with no streets’ assumed its still-visible form: handsome brick and stuccoed villas radiating uphill and along the coast from the railway station.

This 19th century railway heritage is celebrated with a Victorian themed annual street fair. Held in the last weekend of November, the event signals the start of the Christmas season.

After an afternoon at the mulled wine and hogroast stalls, watching stilt-walkers and jugglers and bubble artists, the village’s Christmas lights are switched on.

These photographs taken at yesterday’s event will give you a taste of the day. Perhaps you’ll join us next year?