Cancelled! Attingham Park cold-shoulders seasonal Frost Fair

Bosses at Attingham Park, near Shrewsbury, said the Frost Fair won't be taking place this year, despite the huge crowds which it attracts each year.

Mark Agnew, general manager at the National Trust owned estate, said the bigger the fair has become the more measures have to be put in place to protect the site.

He said the measures include hiring a temporary roadway which comes at a high cost.

He said: "Last year we saw 15,000 visitors over the three-day event, and we have struggled to balance these huge numbers with our commitment to protecting our grounds, which have Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) status.

"With the weather conditions at the time of year the fair is held, the huge number of cars needing to be parked in the grounds and footfall from visitors we have to look at more and more ways of protecting the grounds.

"As a charity we have to consider the benefit each event we hold brings – whether this is through income or by engaging with our visitors.

"As a conservation charity we have to maintain a careful balance between visitor activity and our conservation aims."

He added: "The fair is becoming more and more popular each year with traders and visitors and we are limited in the areas of the grounds we can use – and so we would find it difficult to expand the fair further and develop it as is needed to accommodate these numbers.

"For these reasons we've decided to 'do a Glastonbury' in the short term and rest the event to allow our grounds to recover."

However, Mr Agnew said the rest of the park's Christmas programme will go ahead as planned.

He added: "We informed all our previous traders who would have attended the Frost Fair, some of whom have supported the development of our fairs for nearly 10 years now, in October 2014 to give them more than a year's notice that the event would not take place in 2015."

This year Attingham Park's Summer Fair and Food Fair was also shelved but a new Harvest Fair taking place September 26 and 27 will be held in its place.

Celebrity chef Marcus Bean, owner of Brompton Cookery School, situated on the wider Attingham Estate will be hosting a demonstration kitchen at the event with top tips and seasonal cookery demonstrations held each day.

Mr Agnew added: "We will still be able to continue to work with and promote local traders with a food fair in the orchard during the weekend whilst offering our visitors the opportunity to find out more about why this estate is so important with apple pressing demonstrations and a chance to see how our tenant farms kept the wider estate."