Huge garage sale brings the people of Lover Village together

A huge annual garage sale brings a Wiltshire village together.

Dave Charles started the garage sale event in Lover, near Salisbury, 15 years ago when his daughter left university.

Since then, the event has grown – now around 50 households participate in the sale each year.

“We have hundreds and hundreds of people coming into the village,” Mr Charles told BBC Wiltshire.

“The town hall opens, with bacon and teas and coffees, and it becomes a real community event.”

When his daughter left university, Mr Charles had “a lot of stuff left” and got creative in finding a way to get rid of it.

“I thought a post on our local newsstands really wasn’t going to cut it, so I wrote to all the people in the village,” he said.

At the time, 25 people responded and everyone decided to have a garage sale on the same day.

“One of the lines we use is, ‘One man’s misfortune becomes another man’s treasure,'” Mr. Charles said.

He added: “It’s incredible what people care about.

“Things you think will sell really well, nobody’s interested, but everybody has an eye for a bargain, it shows and it depends what they’re looking for.

“We’ve had people tell us they’ve come to North Surrey, we’ve had people from Bristol.

“It’s a lovely village and it’s a lovely walk as well as a business. And it brings the village together.”

The event will take place on Saturday.