Hitchin Carnival

As a child in the sixties, I remember Hitchin Carnival as quite a spectacular event. I would stand with my parents and sister and enjoy a very elaborate array of floats coming through the town. Smiling, dressed-up folks would walk by shaking tins for charity donations. However, I recall, too, hiding behind my dad when people walked by wearing enormous painted heads. Does anyone else remember them? They freaked me out when I was little!

In 1970, I was a mini-majorette, and remember having just come through an appendix operation, and finding it quite hard to keep twirling and walking. So I got a lift from Letchworth to Hitchin on one of the floats. We all ended up on Butts Close, and prizes would be given for the best floats. It was a great occasion, with lots of floats entering.

What I found really interesting, when reading Ron Pigram’s book Strange Happenings in Hitchin & North Herts, was that a hundred years before I was a mini-majorette; Hitchin Carnival was an even more spectacular occasion. Someone wrote at the time ‘It is certainly very strange, that such a normally prim and quiet town (Hitchin) should erupt in this wild fashion on one night in the year.’

The carnival would take place around Guy Fawkes’ night, and each year the festival would try to outdo the one the year before.

In the late eighteen hundreds it would be a patriotic event, and in 1870 it was normal for men to play females in the theatre. A rather large man called Herbert Barham played Britannia, and sat on the ceremonial float. It went well until, when entering Hitchin Market Square, a low-lying telegraph wire caught him round the neck – and over the side went Britannia.

The events would be expensive and collections were carried out. Some wanted to stop the festival because it disturbed the quiet of Hitchin, which had been given the nickname ‘Sleepy Hollow’ but still the festivals continued.

The festivals included an afternoon procession of floats. Until dusk Hitchin’s Market Square was filled with boys watching excitedly as poles with firework displays were mounted into position.

As night came, special lights around the town were lit, and the air was filled with the sound of exploding firecrackers. Men and boys would swing fireballs which gave out an unpleasant gas which lit the faces of the sightseers with coloured light. The last festival in this style took place in 1881, which was probably the best of them all. There were hot-air balloons, and the bands included ‘the remains of the Edinburgh Tattoo.

There are some great pictures of Hitchin Carnival from 1966-1972 HERE

& HERE

And a photo of the Hitchin Band in the 2000 Carnival HERE

Amanda Brittany
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If you like reading pyschological thrillers Amanda Brittany has written two books: HER LAST LIE features Hitchin and other local towns, and all eBook royalties are being donated to Cancer Research UK in memory of her sister.

TELL THE TRUTH is available to pre-order and is out in December in eBook & audiobook, and in paperback in February 2019

The link to buy is HERE