The car boot sale at Havenstreet station on 16 May opens to sellers from 8:30am and buyers from 9am, which means the serious treasure hunters are usually already well into the finds by the time casual visitors arrive. The Isle of Wight Steam Railway provides an atmosphere that a supermarket car park does not: the sound of a working heritage railway in the background, the station yard as the venue, and the kind of unhurried pace that the island does well on Saturday mornings.
Havenstreet is the main station on the steam railway and has a visitor centre, café, and enough space to make a car boot sale into a worthwhile morning rather than a quick circuit. The trains run through the day alongside the sale, so it is possible to combine the boot sale with a steam journey and make most of the morning of it. The mix of sellers tends to cover railway memorabilia and general household goods in roughly equal measure.
Sellers from 8:30am; buyers from 9am. Small charge for sellers; free entry for buyers. More community and heritage events on the Isle of Wight this spring.
