So glad we checked out the location of this car boot!

For some reason, I assumed this was where the car park is as you approach Epsom from Chessington. But no, it’s on a field before that. And if we hadn’t checked out the location, I could well have got in the wrong (right hand lane) and completely missed it.

I arrived at around 7.10 (website info is 7 am for sellers). Joined the queue in the left hand lane and into the field. And into the next field. And the next field. Where I was parked.

Actually, as it turned out, I was probably in a prime location. Not far from the entrance, not far from the ice cream van, not far from the first set of portaloo toilets. But that was just luck.

We were parked pretty much bumper to bumper, which is pretty annoying when you are in a small car and more annoying when you pack a lot of stuff into your small car and even more annoying when you pay the same pitch fee as any other car but the good thing was that there was a fair bit of space between the aisles so set my 3 x pasting tables up in a U-formation and got everything out on display.

It was a slow start. But as always, there are fellow crafters out there who just can’t hold of their supplies anymore what with haberdashery shops closing and the cost of P&P if you buy online, and by the time the GOM (Grumpy Old Man) arrived at around 9am, it was all systems go.

But the GOM was able to hold the fort while I was able to “go for a wander”. And what a wander it was! the field was vast! It took 4 x wanders to get around it all! From what other sellers told me, it seems that Bank Holiday Monday is a day when sellers pack in, a good day for buyers. Slim pickings for craft supplies for me, but good for my youngest’s off-to-uni supplies. Recognised a few sellers who’d been at Apps Court Farm car boot the previous day.

I dashed back to my stall after hearing a rumble of thunder and we started putting away my stock, starting with the slow sellers, in the car. In the end, the threatened thunderstorm came to nothing but the threat was enough to start the domino effect of sellers packing away. We tend not to join the queue of sellers leaving. Leave early or leave late is our mantra. No point wasting petrol stuck in a queue when you could go “totting” ie sorting through others’ left-behind waste (me) – much to the GOM’s distaste –  or going for a walk (the GOM), to which I (grumpily) acquiesce. Or an early lunch of hot dogs, on which we both agree.

But eventually the car queue is gone. Home at last and I cash up and it’s been a good day (for me). I definitely recommend Hook Road Arena at least on a Bank Holiday Monday whether as buyer or seller.