Adult Only Touring Caravan Park & Camping
Self-catering Holiday Lodge Accommodation For hire
Sparkford Somerset
ANTIQUE HUNTING HOLIDAYS IN SOMERSET
Somerset is a great county to visit for antique hunting, with lots of market towns surrounding our caravan park and campsite in Sparkford. Our nearest town of Castle Cary is a great place to start, just five miles away, and we'd recommend keeping an eye out for monthly markets and antiques fairs which happen regularly around the county. With our local bus route running from Sparkford High Street to many of these places, you can spend a day antiques hunting and enjoy some local cider too!
Our nearest town of Castle Cary has a number of small antiques shops, but the most exciting of all is the new Castle Cary Antiques and Interiors hub. The shop and outside area features 20 individual antiques experts who are all operating under one roof. You'll find lots of interesting furniture and interiors, situated on Castle Cary's Market Place.
Castle Cary's monthly Vintage Market is also well worth a visit, falling on the first Saturday of each month from March to September. You'll find clothing, collectables, homeware and garden ornaments.
Castle Cary can be accessed by our local bus route, just 100 yards from our entrance.
The biggest draw for antique hunters is always the Royal Bath and West Showground at Shepton Mallet (13 miles, accessible by bus from Sparkford High Street). The two most notable events throughout the year are the Giant Shepton Flea Market, which has been a Somerset fixture for 23 years and has 250 stalls covering furniture, art, jewellery and much more. Dates for the Giant Shepton Flea Market 2024 are as follows:
January 21st 2024
March 31st 2024
May 12th 2024
July 7th 2024
August 11th 2024
October 13th 2024
December 8th 2024
The Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair is equally popular with our guests, hosted by IACF and held at the Royal Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet. The antique, vintage and collectors fair boasts 600 stalls across three indoor halls and outdoor areas, making it the largest antiques, vintage and collectors fair in the West County. The dates for this year are:
Friday 15 - Sunday 17 March 2024
Friday 14 - Sunday 16 June 2024
Friday 13 - Sunday 15 September 2024
Friday 8 - Sunday 10 November 2024
With lots of small independent shops and antique boutiques in Bruton, you'll find loads to explore. With several antiques shops on the High Street, many focusing on items and photographs from the Somerset and North Dorset area, this is the ideal place to explore any family history linked to the West Country.
You'll also find some of the county's best restaurants in renovated buildings in Bruton, many dating from the 1500s. A couple of minutes away from the town centre is Hauser & Wirth art gallery, with free exhibitions and access to a beautiful garden.
Known for eclectic taste, Glastonbury town centre also has a number of vintage and retro stores to visit. The majority of Glastonbury High Street is made up of independent shops, with a market run in St Dunstan's car park every Tuesday morning.
A little further on the outskirts of Glastonbury is their own Reclamation, which specialises in reclaimed building materials, furniture, ornamental garden pieces, as well as vintage cider presses and farming equipment.
Wells Reclamation is one of the oldest reclamation yards in the UK, with five and a half acres of architectural antiques to discover. As well as being a great resource for new and reclaimed building materials, Wells Reclamation also features a great indoor emporium of antique and vintage furniture.
Wells also hosts their own vintage fair, Vintage Somerset Fair, which is held at Wells Town Hall. You'll find two indoor halls of records, homeware, furniture and jewellery.
There are a lot of options for antique hunting in the nearby town of Frome.
The Frome Independent Market is one of the most popular local markets, with over 80,000 visitors each year. You'll find lots of independent food and drink producers, as well as lots of independent makers and vintage nostalgia. It's held on the first Sunday of each month.
The Frome Flea Market is held every Wednesday afternoon in the centre of town, featuring vintage jewellery and gifts. The first Sunday of each month is also the Magpie Market. Frome also has its own reclamation centre and are the largest stockist of architectural salvage and genuine reclaimed materials in the south west
On the second Saturday of each month, you'll find the Langport Antiques and Vintage Market. The market sells furniture, pictures, homewares and collectables with the theme of vintage, re-used items or recyclables.
Just a few miles away is the market town of Somerton, with several antiques shops. Most notably, you'll find Market Cross Antiques opposite the octagonal market cross which dates from 1673. The market cross is a Grade II listed monument, marking the history of Somerton as a prominent market town in Somerset.
The Yeovil Emporium is host to over 80 independent retailers and artisans, with a great range of homeware and antiques. Some of the most notable traders include specialists in glassware, a shop dedicated to clocks and a stand featuring dollhouses and furniture.
For those visiting us to enjoy Haynes Motor Museum and the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton, you'll also find a stand trading in antique, retro and vintage toy cars and another specialising in automobilia and militaria.
The Emporium also has its own cafe, serving up cream teas and hosting year round events in the evenings, including vintage tribute acts and Gin and Jazz evenings.
There are so many antiques shops in Crewkerne, often known as the best place to go antiques hunting in Somerset. Crewkerne Antiques Centre is situated in the town centre and specialises in period furniture. There is also an Antiques Bazaar, featuring stalls from 75 traders in an old textile mill just outside of the town centre.
Alongside these two large stores are also several other smaller shops, including Dekorative Kollective which has featured on Drew Pritchard's Salvage Hunters and Milly's which has featured on BBC's Antiques Road Trip.
As our caravan park is just a few miles away from the Dorset border, we recommend a visit to Sherborne.
Sherborne Antiques Market is held in the centre of the town, near the Abbey, and features 42 dealers selling furniture, art, jewellery, watches and much more. The market has a fixed venue and is open 7 days a week.
Sherborne Digby Hall Monthly Market is also situated in Sherborne and is held on the first Sunday of every month March - December. The market features antiques, crafts and food.