Once upon a time a little girl wanted to go looking for fairies - and became the inspiration for Norfolk's enchanting Fairy Fairs.

When four-year-old Amazon wondered where she could find fairies her parents came up with the magical idea of creating a day full of fairies, art and nature.

Amazon is now all grown up but thousands of children who still believe in fairies can find them in the grounds of a stately home this month.

The first Fairy Fair was held at Bayfield Hall, near Holt, and the latest extravaganza, merging magic and the natural world for small people, will be held on May 26 and 27 in the Primrose Woods at Stradsett Hall, near Downham Market.

The beautiful setting will sparkle with fairy gardens and crowns, a pixie post office and fairyland photo booth, pirate games, fairy and elf training sessions, wildflower and bee workshops, costumed characters including the fairy king and queen, wildflower fairies, and giant gentle bees, plus visitors in fancy dress, stilt-walkers, storytelling and maypole dancing. There will also be live music, craft stalls selling hand-made and fairly-traded goods, refreshments, and even a pub, The Good Elf.

Fairy Fairs are run by Norfolk-based Fairyland Trust, a national conservation charity which has been helping families experience the magic of nature since 2001.

Event manager Abbie Panks said: 'It's the perfect event for three to eight year olds but whole families come along, from newborns to grandparents. Fairyland Trust events allow children to interact with nature in a magical way, so a child taking part in our workshops will have their imagination sparked by tales rich in folklore and natural history, while learning about British wildlife, nature, plant-animal interactions and the story of our landscape.

'Our events also feature walkabout entertainers who interact with children and their families, live music and storytelling. They are a unique combination of drama, science, arts and crafts and spectacle.

'We want to help families enjoy nature in their own time too, as their great-grandparents could, when it was easy to find a flower-filled meadow to picnic and play in. That is why we are also raising funds to create new wildflower meadows.'

The Fairyland Trust also runs an autumn Halloween event and leads workshops around the country, sprinkling its fairy-dust over around 150,000 people.

Founders Sarah Wise and Chris Rose, of Wells, were keen to create family days out full of happy memories which would help children continue to love nature as they grew up. They had spent years working for conservation groups which struggled to attract families to their projects and sites and knew that when their daughter wanted to look for fairies she had helped them find a way for parents and children to experience the magic of the natural world.

The Fairy Fair is at Stradsett Hall, Saturday and Sunday, May 26-27, 10am-5pm.

And on October 27 and 28 the Fairyland Trust's Real Halloween event will be at Bradmoor Woods, West Acre, near Swaffham.

Tickets for the Fairy Fair and Real Halloween cost £10 per adult, £9 for children, under-threes free, from creativeorchardevents.com

All profits go to Fairyland Trust fairylandtrust.org