Traditional marquees are the most widely recognised marquees. They are the standard type with centre poles and guy ropes. Each marquee is usually made from two sections known as the 'ends'. For example a 30' by 30' marquee is made from two 30' wide by 15' long ends which are attached to each other.

If this were to be extended a 'middle' would be put in between the ends. This allows the marquees to be modular and effectively they have no limit on their length. Our standard middles are 10', 15' and 20' although if a non-standard size is required we can make them.

There are two basic ways of erecting marquees, push-up and pull up. Pull up marquees have pulleys attached to the top of the centre pole which attach to the ridge. The roof is then laid on top of the ridges and then pulled up to the required height.

All our marquees over 40' use this method. Push up marquees (30' and smaller) don't need the poles to be stood upright before being erected. The poles are laid out on the floor with the ridges placed on top of the centre poles. The roof section is then laid over the top of the centre poles. The centre poles are then pushed up into the air.

This is considerably quicker (and usually easier) than using pulleys, it is however too heavy a method for marquees over 40'. For marquees of 80' and 100' we use a mixture of the two methods. On these marquees there are two additional runs of centre poles known as queen poles either side of the main king poles. The roof is pulled up on the king poles and pushed up on the queen poles.

The middle and end sections are attached together using a method know as 'Dutch Lacing'. This is a very simple and quick method. One of the pieces to be joined has a run of evenly spaced holes along its length and the other has a run of string loops the same length as the gap between the holes on the other piece. The loops are passed through the corresponding hole and then through the previous loop. This continues to the end of material and the last loop is tied.The circles represent the eyelets. The dotted line shows the material on the right passing underneath the piece on the left and the black curves are the strings

Crockers traditional marquees above 30’ wide have all been assessed as being able to withstand wind speeds of 75mph (33.5m/sec). These calculations have been carried out in accordance with the British Standards Codes of Practice.