The Toytown

Tiny traffic for every taste – from tractors to trains, choose your favourite means of transport.

About The Toytown

Ride a train, car, tractor or horse and hold on tight as you gently spin around. This ride is very popular with our younger visitors who love the turning the steering whels on the miniature replica cars.

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Who can ride, and what does it cost?

You’ll need 1 new 2022 token to ride

Toytown is suitable for preschool children up to the age of 5 or 6.

Adults do not fit on these rides but can watch from the side.

A brief history of the Toytown

The Toytown ride is a rare platform ride made by Halstead of Sowerby Bridge in around 1930. Showmen used to adapt old style animal roundabouts to be more up-to-the-minute, using pedal cars instead. The Toytown ride has an excellent selection of pedal cars and other mounts to choose from. 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. 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 Halstead. Cars & Bikes, as it’s known, is a bit smaller than Toytown, but is nevertheless a very popular ride that we hire out.

Find out more

Want to feature the fair in a video or photoshoot?

If you’d like to talk to us about hiring the fair, or about a feature for film or television, you’ll find our hire section has lots of information.

Want to find out more about our rides and fairground art?

At selected locations you can join Joby Carter for a 1 hour guided tour talking about the history of our rides and fairground art through the decades. Book tickets here.

Find your nearest fair

Excited to try out our vintage steam fair rides and attractions? Find out when Carters are visiting a location near you.

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