Thames Valley: Circus celebration is just the ticket for Grundon’s 90th

Thames Valley-based Grundon has celebrated its 90^th anniversary in style by teaming up with Giffords Circus for a fun-filled weekend of performances under the Big Top in Windsor.

The shows brought together two famous families who put passion, inspiration and service at the heart of everything they do.

With its fitting theme of a summer of love, Giffords 2019 show Xanadu took the audience right back to the height of flower power, teaming hippies and musicians with breathtaking acrobats and aerial artists, beautiful horses and the magic of slapstick, courtesy of Tweedy the clown.

Neil Grundon, now deputy chairman of the Grundon family business, has been friends with Nell Gifford, founder of Giffords Circus, for over 30 years and says the opportunity to take over the circus for the weekend was just too good to miss.

“Our two families share a passion and a vision for getting it right,” said Gifford. “I have watched Nell’s career skyrocket, anyone who has a dream and can bring it to fruition in the way she has done is a great inspiration and she is an incredible person. We wanted to celebrate our anniversary and to say a big thank you to our employees, our customers, suppliers and partners and we also wanted to make it a family affair. Everyone has memories of the circus and we couldn’t think of a better way to bring all the generations together – this weekend was everything we wanted to achieve and more.”

Gifford added: “It was a great honour to be invited by Grundon to take part in their 90-year celebrations. Giffords Circus is very proud to be associated with another family-run business. All the audiences over the weekend were incredibly enthusiastic and we had a lot of fun dancing with the various Grundon teams and family in the ring at the end of the show! It was fun having the Grundon vintage vehicles dressing our front of house and it was a weekend that I will remember for many years.”

Over 2,000 people attended six performances over the weekend, treated to delicious food and home-baked cakes, ice creams and drinks from the Circus Sauce Restaurant, while also having the opportunity to view some of Grundon’s vintage vehicles alongside the latest additions to its CarbonNeutral fleet.

It was also a chance for Norman Grundon to sign copies of his book, The Road from Sand & Gravel, which is helping to raise funds for Child Bereavement UK.