The West of England, Great Britain's major antiques resource area. The West of England is home to hundreds of quality antiques businesses, including specialist dealers, antique fairs and over sixty auction houses.
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - Research has found that the West of England has possibly the largest antiques resources in Great Britain. Taking the City of Bath, which has it's own very active antique dealers association, as a central point the area stretches for about 80 miles in all directions. Within about two hours or so, buyers have at their disposal what is possibly the most concentrated and varied source of quality antiques services that Britain has to offer and presenting them with little, if any need to venture beyond it’s parameters.
For example, the Cotswolds, which apart from it's outstanding natural beauty is home to dozens of reputable antiques specialists in the beautiful towns of Tetbury, Stow on the Wold, Moreton in Marsh, Chipping Camden, and Burford to name just a few.
Similarly, in a southerly direction is the small market town of Honiton, Devon where the visitor will find a varied selection of no less than 29 antique dealers, with many others to be found in nearby villages, thereby extending the region southerly past Exeter and south easterly into Dorset.
Easterly and still within easy reach, buyers will find a further extensive selection of quality antiques in the picturesque town of Hungerford. With two antique centres together with fifteen other general and specialist dealers, not forgetting a regular fair, the town is perhaps one of the best-kept antiques secrets in the UK!
Whereas westerly throughout South Wales, produces some fine Welsh antique furniture including dressers and decorative items from various specialist dealers and several auction rooms including a weekly Sunday sale near Newport. The area extends as far as the tiny Welsh border town of Hay on Wye, renowned for it’s seemingly endless supply of 39 antiquarian book shops and the annual Hay Literary Festival which attracts 80,000 worldwide visitors.
The West of England also abounds with some excellent antique fairs, notably at the Royal Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, which is central to the region. The Showground is home to a very large fair on weekends six times a year by one organiser, and a regular Flea Market by another. There is also a very large fair held five times a year at West Point Exhibition Centre near Exeter with a capacity of up to 500 exhibitors, and a monthly fair on Sunday's at Malvern Showground, which is less than two hours drive away in the north of the area. There are in addition many more good quality fairs, some specialist, held throughout the region, mostly at weekends. Similarly, several dealer associations host their own events throughout the year, for example BABAADA, the Bath & Bradford on Avon Antique Dealers Association in Bath during March. LAPADA, the Association of Art & Antique Dealers at Cheltenham Racecourse in October and CADA, the Cotswold Antique Dealers Association, 'Members Exhibitions' during the same month.
Also of significant importance to the West of England antiques trade is the central location of Bristol International Airport which is served by direct daily flights to and from the
