A fair specialising in high-end handmade wares is to return next month to sell a range of Christmas gifts.

Langham Handmade Fair will be held at Langham Community Centre on Sunday November 14, with no fewer than 30 different makers signed up for stalls at the event.

Organised by Dawn Harrison, 43, and Clair Iddenden, 41, the fair will run from 10:30am until 3:30pm.

The idea for the even came about after Mrs Iddenden was searching for handmade events to attend, but couldn’t find any locally.

Mrs Iddenden then teamed up with her friend, Mrs Harrison, to put on the Langham Handmade Fair, which attracts makers in Essex and Suffolk as well as further afield.

Many of the different stalls feature the types of crafts which are rarely mass-produced.

One maker, Amanda Rutland, focusses on making decorations out of pumpkins, called gourds, which featured on national television as part of Kirsty Allsop’s Handmade Christmas on Channel 4 last year.

Her business, called Gorgeous Gourds, will be at the handmade fair.

Mrs Iddenden herself sells family portraits made out of stitching, whilst her fellow organiser, Mrs Harrison, makes handmade fabric notice boards.

Although mid-November may seem early for a Christmas fair, Mrs Iddenden explained that because many of the gifts are personalised, it can often take weeks for a maker to put their product together.

She said: “We always do a November fair because we’ve got to personalise the items – and people like to buy in advance.

“The family portraits I make can take up to three weeks to make.

“This sort of thing is a lot more popular now, because a lot of people took up making handmade crafts as a hobby during lockdown – now it’s become a business for many of them.”